SBE Council President's Health-Care Repeal Letter

The following is a press release from SBE Council, a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to protecting small business and promoting entrepreneurship.

SBE Council President & CEO Karen Kerrigan sent a letter to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) in response to a request that we help identify existing regulations and proposed initiatives that are hampering job creation, small business investment and economic recovery.  In the letter, Kerrigan outlined several immediate and key areas of concern including regulations focused on health care, the workplace, our nation's financial system, energy and the environment and other assorted trends that are raising (or will raise) cost burdens and uncertainties for entrepreneurs.

Kerrigan thanked Chairman Issa for his leadership in tackling the serious issue of burdensome and counterproductive overregulation.  "Unfortunately, business owners remain on edge regarding the tidal wave of federal government regulation that has been advanced or proposed over the past two years -- all of which will impose new costs or lead to unintended consequences for small firms.  The pain of the harsh recession was intensified and lengthened by this hyper-regulatory environment.  Uncertainty continues to linger as entrepreneurs are bracing for new costs or consequences that they expect will arrive (and, in fact, already have) with the implementation of major pieces of legislation or policies," wrote Kerrigan in the letter.

Kerrigan reminded Chairman Issa that the per-employee cost of federal regulation has reached staggering levels.  The SBA Office of Advocacy's most recent regulatory impact study found that in 2008, the per-employee regulatory cost for small businesses with fewer than 20 employees was $10,585 - compared to $7,755 for firms with more than 500 employees.  With regard to environmental regulation, the disparity between small and large firms is stunning -- $4,101 per employee for small firms versus $883 per employee for larger ones.  Small manufacturers take the biggest cost hit, according to the Office of Advocacy report.  They pay a staggering $28,316 per employee in total regulatory costs.

You can access the letter, and the details of the regulations identified by SBE Council by clicking here.

SBE Council is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy organization dedicated to protecting small business and promoting entrepreneurship. For more information, please visit www.sbecouncil.org.