The Keys to Restarting Our Economy

Statement

Dear Friends:

It is more urgent than ever for me to be working with the President and my colleagues in both the House and the Senate to bring about a full economic recovery for everyone. We need to do everything we can to turn the keys to restarting our economy and providing jobs for those who need them.

The first key to recovery is easing the regulatory burden on America's job creators, especially small businesses. The House will be working to eliminate one major job killing regulation every week which has been shown to have a negative impact on jobs. Seven of these regulations have an estimated cost of more than $1 billion each, with a potential combined cost of more than $100 billion in a single year.

This year there are over 219 new federal regulations which will have an economic impact of $100 million or more, according to the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center. That is an increase of nearly 15 % over last year, when there were 191 new economically-significant regulatory actions.

The House will also be working on legislation that would require congressional approval for any new regulatory action that is projected to prevent new jobs.

The House has already passed more than a dozen pro-growth measures to address the jobs crisis this year. Unfortunately, with the exception of the repeal of the 1099 form in the health care law, every one of the jobs measures passed by the House to date is still awaiting action in the Senate.

Another key to providing jobs is to free up to 10% of federal transportation funds by eliminating federal mandates to spend the funds for specific purposes. While many of these mandates support worthy projects, eliminating this requirement would allow states to fund programs that are needed now to provide jobs and needed transportation improvements. Also, we need to set time limits to speed up the approval process and get more projects underway faster.

A major key in this effort are the three pending trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea, which collectively would support the creation of 250,000 jobs. Expanding markets for U.S. small businesses and manufacturers is critical to create new American jobs. My colleagues in the House and I are ready -- and have been ready -- to pass these free-trade agreements, as soon as the president sends them to Congress.

Both parties must work together to help get our economy back to creating jobs and clear the way for the long-term economic growth needed to balance the budget and solve the debt crisis.

Sincerely,

Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
Member of Congress

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