Support for Common Sense Regulatory Reform

On behalf of the 10,000 members of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), who own more than 20,000 hotels across the United States, we are deeply concerned with increasing regulation on American businesses.  Burdensome regulation negatively impacts American private enterprise in a manner that impairs every sector of our economy.  AAHOA strongly supports efforts to require a cost / benefit analysis prior to the implementation of new regulations.  We also support a renewed effort to eliminate regulations that adversely impact employers and prohibit job creation.

Issue: Increased Government Regulation Negatively Impacts Economic Output And Job Growth

An estimated 14 million American workers are seeking employment and another 10 million are underemployed.  At no time since the great depression have so many Americans been without a good job. Yet even with the dire economic conditions facing our nation, the Federal government moves forward with regulations that interfere with the free market and unnecessarily increase the costs of employment.

  • A 2009 study, authored by Sanjay B. Varshney, business school dean at California State University Sacramento and Dennis H. Tootelian, marketing professor at Sacramento State, looked at the impact of regulation on California alone.  The study determined the total "direct, indirect and induced" costs of regulation were $492 billion, with a cost of $134,122 per small business, and one job loss per small business.
  • James Gattuso, Senior Research Fellow in Regulatory Policy at the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies has determined since January 2009, the Administration has issued 75 new major regulations, with annual costs of $38 billion.  There were only six major deregulatory actions during that time, with reported savings of just $1.5 billion.
  • According to a recent Heritage Foundation report, government regulation results in significant job loss.  A pending EPA rule on boilers threatens some 71,000 jobs related to the paper and pulp industry.  FCC “net-neutrality” rules are forecast to reduce employment by hundreds of thousands of jobs.  A recent report by the Manufacturer’s projected the loss of 7.3 million jobs by 2020 from the EPA’s proposed ozone rule.
  • According to an April 2011 study by the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economics Public Policy Studies, each $1,000,000 dollar increase in the regulatory budget costs the economy 420 private sector jobs.
  • Americans prefer free markets to regulation.  An October 2010 survey by Rasmussen Reports reports that 75 percent of likely U.S. voters believe a free market economy is better than an economy managed by the government.

Equitable Policy:  Support for Common-Sense Regulation Reform

AAHOA urges the passage of legislation that will lead to common-sense regulatory reform:

  • Regulations From the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act [H.R. 10 & S. 299] – This Act will require Congressional approval of major regulations that result in: (1) an annual economic effect of $100 million or more; (2) a major increase in costs or prices; or (3) significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or U.S. competitiveness.  
  • Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act [H.R. 2587 & S. 504] – This legislation is designed to protect the rights of all Americans to be freely employed.  It will deny the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) any power to (1) order an employer to restore or reinstate any work, product, production line, or equipment; (2) rescind or change the location, entity or employer who will shall be engaged in production or business operations; or (3) require any employer to make an investment in a particular plant, facility or location.