Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, it's a new day in Washington, and soon the unelected, unaccountable regulators will be sending out new rules to the people.

The fourth branch of government meddles in every aspect of our lives. In the name of saving us from ourselves, they regulate, regulate, regulate without regard to the consequences of these expensive government mandates. Sometimes they put businesses out of business. Susan, a small business owner in Texas, wrote me this:

Our small business has operated on a shoestring for several years, and we started in 1978, but I fear we are at an end. We manufacture 400 products, all made from the same materials. The new product safety regulations require that we certify every product to the tune of about $500 per product, even though they're all made from the same materials. Do the math: $175,000 or more just to get these products that we've made since '78 certified. Add on the health care fines and the rising cost of gasoline and the rising property and sales and income taxes--well, you know the rest of the story.

Madam Speaker, the regulators close the doors of small businesses like Susan's, and that ought not to be.

And that's just the way it is.