In keeping with the holiday spirit, Representative Darrell Issa (R-California), the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, asked corporations last month to send him their wish list of government regulations they’d like to see go away.

 

Issa reached out to more than 150 companies, trade associations and think tanks to locate pending or existing federal rules considered threats to increased profits or, as Issa put it, “regulations that have negatively impacted job growth in your members’ industry.” Some of the businesses or organizations that the congressman contacted were Duke Energy, the Association of American Railroads, Toyota, Bayer, the American Petroleum Institute, National Association of Manufacturers and the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association.

 

The corporate feedback delivered to Issa included Occupational Safety and Health Administration policies, new Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulations for over-the-counter derivatives, and new rules to enforce the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act that was approved by President George W. Bush before he left office.

 

Democrats and consumer watchdogs blasted Issa’s effort.

 

“This is even more evidence that House Republicans are in the business of protecting corporate special interests instead of creating middle-income jobs,” the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee said in a statement.

 

Public Citizen remarked: “Rather than providing a platform for presentation of a corporate wish list, Representative Issa should be subjecting corporate claims to the withering scrutiny he promises for the Obama administration. It’s time we ended the Kabuki theater of corporate whining, and got on with the serious business of creating jobs and making America safer and cleaner.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Darrell Issa Asks Business: Tell Me What to Change (by Darren Goode, Politico)

G.O.P. Asks Businesses Which Rules to Rewrite (by Binyamin Appelbaum, New York Times)

Issa’s Letter to Business Groups (MSNBC.com)