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Harriet M. Hageman Hageman Law P.C. November 23, 2013

Regulation without Representation What You Should Know to Protect Yourself, Your Community, Your State, Our Liberties and Our Republic. Harriet M. Hageman Hageman Law P.C. November 23, 2013. Current Financial Climate. Federal Government Debt - $ 17.175 Trillion (11-22-13)

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Harriet M. Hageman Hageman Law P.C. November 23, 2013

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  1. Regulation without RepresentationWhat You Should Know to Protect Yourself, Your Community, Your State, Our Liberties and Our Republic Harriet M. Hageman Hageman Law P.C. November 23, 2013

  2. Current Financial Climate • Federal Government Debt - $ 17.175 Trillion (11-22-13) • Almost $ 17.142 Trillion (11/13/13) • $ 16.9 trillion dollars (08/16/13) • $ 16.353 trillion dollars (12/07/12) • $ 15.989 trillion on 8/28/12 (increased almost $1 trillion dollars in 12 months) • $ 54,155 per person ($ 51,931 in 12/07/12) • $ 149,669 per taxpayer ($142,394 in 12/07/12; $139,975 on 8/28/12) • Increases approx. $ 3.3 billion every day • U.S. Federal Spending as of 11/22/13 (appropriated and spent): $ 3,475,349,000,000

  3. Spending Spree • 110th Congress (01/07 to 01/09) increased debt by $1.957 trillion to the overall debt • The Debt was $ 9.4 trillion as of December, 2010 • 111th Congress (01/09to 01/11) added $3.22 trillion to the overall debt. • More than the first 100 Congresses combined. • 112th Congress (01/11 to 01/13) added almost $ 4 trillion to the overall debt • Outlays of $3.538 trillion for 2012. • President Obama’s federal budget proposal for FY 2013 - $3.803 trillion in discretionary, entitlement and interest spending • Debt has increased over $ 7 trillion since 2009

  4. Three Branches of Government • Executive (President, Governor) • Legislative (Congress, State Legislatures) • Judicial • Federal and State Agencies • What happens once the legislation is passed?

  5. Statutes vs. Regulations – A Primer • Statutes – Legislative Branch • Endangered Species Act • National Environmental Policy Act • Clean Air Act • Clean Water Act • Regulations – Executive Branch (President, Governors) • Developed by the agencies

  6. The “Real Governing Class” • Congress vs. Regulation • In 2009, Congress passed 125 bills; over 3,500 Regs adopted by Fed Agencies • In 2010, Congress passed 217 bills; 3,573 Regs adopted by Fed Agencies • In 2011, Congress passed 81 bills; 3,807 Regs adopted by Fed Agencies (6.5% increase over 2010) • In 2012, Congress passed 127 bills; 3708 Regs adopted by Fed Agencies

  7. Legislature/Congress v. Agencies • Agencies do not answer to voters, so the unelected end up doing the majority of the lawmaking. • Our elected officials are allowed to avoid making difficult decisions. • Agencies are incentivized to expand their jurisdiction, authority, oversight, involvement, _____, _____, _____, _____ (power, budgets, etc.)

  8. Nerd Gas, Casper, Wyoming: just one example • Nerd Gas has 209 total employees. • 129 Federal, State, County and City agencies touch their companies.

  9. Federal Red Tape • Army Corps of Engineering • BLM • Census Bureau • Consumer Finance Protection Bureau • Department of Housing and Urban Development (Federal Housing Administration) • Department of Labor • Department of Veterans Affairs • EPA • Equal Employment Opportunity Commission • Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) • Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) • Federal Housing Finance Authority as Receiver for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac • Federal Reserve (HMDA Data reporting) • Internal Revenue Service (IRS) • National Mortgage Licensing System

  10. Federal Red Tape, cont. • Federal Unemployment • National Mortgage Licensing System • U.S. Department of Agriculture (Rural Development Administration) • U.S. Department of Education • U.S. Department of Labor • U.S. Department of the Interior • U.S. Department of Treasury • U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs • U.S. Forest Service

  11. State Red Tape • Alaska Department of Natural Resources • Colorado Department of Labor and Employment • Colorado Department of Revenue • Department of Transportation in nearly every Western U.S. state • Illinois Department of Revenue • Minnesota Department of Revenue • Nebraska Child Support Payments Center Lincoln, NE • Nebraska Department of Revenue • North Dakota Department of Employment • North Dakota Department of Health • North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner • Nuclear Regulatory Commission • Port Authority: Texas (Houston), Louisiana, Seattle, Alaska • State Collection & Distribution Unit Las Vegas, NV • State of Texas Child Support • State of Wyoming • State of Wyoming Office of State Lands & Investments • University of Wyoming

  12. State Red Tape, cont. • Various State Income Tax Agencies • Wyoming Board of Control • Wyoming Business Council • Wyoming Department of Banking • Wyoming Department of Child Support • Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality • Wyoming Department of Insurance • Wyoming Department of Labor • Wyoming Department of Revenue • Wyoming Department of Transportation • Wyoming Department of Workforce Services • Wyoming Employment Department • Wyoming Game & Fish Department

  13. State Red Tape, cont. • Wyoming New Hire Reporting Center • Wyoming Oil & Gas Commission • Wyoming OSHA • Wyoming Secretary of State • Wyoming State Emergency Commission • Wyoming State Engineer's Office • Wyoming State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) • Wyoming Unclaimed Property Division • Wyoming Unemployment • Wyoming Workers and Safety Compensation Division

  14. Redundant Redundancy • EPA (federal); DEQ (state) • Dept of Transportation (federal and state) • Dept of Education (federal and state) • Dept of Labor (federal and state) • Dept of Agriculture (federal and state)

  15. Regulations – Costly and Contradictory Redundancy • Federal Regulations - Examples • Clean Water Act • Endangered Species Act • National Forest Management • State Regulations • Enforcement of the Clean Water Act • Game and Fish Regulations • Management of State Forest Lands

  16. Regulatory Expansion • Federal Cost to administer and police the regulatory enterprise: Over $ 61 billion dollars per year • Number of current federal regulatory employees: almost 300,000; increased 17% under President Obama (as of December, 2012).

  17. Agency “interpretation” of Statutes • EPA interpretation as described by U.S. Supreme Court in Rapanos v. U.S. • JP Morgan – Recent loss of $ 2 billion • Dodd/Frank • White House Position: Regulations not finalized; so trading that resulted in the loss not prohibited. • Either the trades were illegal or were not; regulations shouldn’t be used to “legislate” where Congress hasn’t.

  18. Agency “interpretation” of Statues cont. • Health-care law – power of Secretary of Health and Human Services • Obamacare law – 2700 pages • Lawyers have already drafted 20,000 pages of regulations for implementation (13,000+ pages in December, 2012) • In excess of 180 boards, commissions, and bureaus • 18 pages in Fed.Reg. to define “full-time” employee (now reduced to 30 hours per week) • IRS Estimate: it will take 79,229,503 hours for families and businesses to comply with Obamacare Taxes (80 million hours – seriously)

  19. Examples of Regulatory Overreach – have we gone crazy? • Pythagorean Theorem……………………..24 words • First Amendment to the U.S. Const….......45 words • Lord’s Prayer ……………………………….66 words • Archimedes’ Principle……….....................67 words • 10 Commandments …………………….. 179 words • Gettysburg Address………......................286 words

  20. Have We Gone Crazy cont. • Declaration of Independence…………….1300 words • U.S. Govt. Regs on Cabbage Crop Insurance …………………………………3500 words • U.S. Constitution (w/ 27 Amend) ………7,818 words • U.S. Govt. Regs on Special Rules for Experimental Populations of T and E Wildlife and Plants ……...over 36,000 words

  21. Have We Gone Crazy cont. • The federal worker-safety laws include some 4,000 rules dictating precisely what equipment shall be used and how facilities are built. • Stairways shall be lit by “natural or artificial illumination.” • Under a recent federal directive, the number of health-care reimbursement categories will soon increase from 18,000 to 140,000 • Includes 21 separate categories for “spacecraft accidents” and 12 for bee stings. • There are over 100,000,000 words of binding federal statutes and regulations, and states and municipalities add billions more.

  22. We are crazy • New HHS Regulation: “Administrative Simplification: Adoption of Authoring Organizations for Operating Rules and Adoption of Operating Rules for Eligibility and Claims Status”

  23. Hidden (indirect) Costs and Regulatory Burdens: The Real Definition of a Crises • 1992-Regulation Costs: $ 400 billion • 2001-Regulation Costs: $ 843 billion • 2005-Regulation Costs: $ 1.1 trillion • 2008- Regulation Costs: $1.75 trillion • These costs do not include: • Obamacare • Dodd/Frank financial “reform” • Recent EPA Regulations

  24. Cost of Obama Regulations • The American Action Forum has found that the cost of the Obama Regulations is $ 488 billion dollars • Added onto the annual cost of $ 1.75 trillion through 2008. • Total regulatory burden exceeds $ 2 trillion dollars a year.

  25. Regulatory Costs cont. • 2008 Regulatory Costs – nearly twice as much as all individual income taxes collected • 2009 Americans paid $ 989 billion in income taxes • 2012 income taxes – Over $ 1.1 trillion • Income tax rate must be disclosed • No similar requirement for costs of regulations • Unless have an “impact” of $ 100,000,000.00 or more (defined as “economically significant”)

  26. Regulatory Costs cont. • Given 2012’s actual federal gov’t spending of $3.538 trillion dollars, the regulatory “hidden tax” ($1.75 trillion in 2008) stands at an unprecedented 49.46% of the level of federal spending itself. • In absolute terms, the U.S. Gov’t is the largest government on planet earth. • Regulations and deficits each exceed $ 1 trillion per year.

  27. Regulatory Costs, cont. • Regulatory costs exceed all 2011 est. corporate income taxes of $ 237 billion • Regulatory costs exceed individual income taxes of $1.165 trillion • Regulatory costs in excess of $1.8 trillion absorb 11.6% of the U.S. GDP (estimated at $15.549 trillion in 2012) • Combining regulatory costs with federal FY 2012 outlays of $3.538 trillion reveals a federal gov’t whose share of the entire economy now reaches 34.4%.

  28. The Year 2013: A Snapshot • Of the 4,062 regulations adopted and/or proposed, 224 are “economically significant” (impacts exceed $100,000,000). • 854 affect small businesses • The 13 most expensive are estimated to cost the U.S. economy $ 515 billion. • Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio): “Those delayed rules, together with more than 130 unfinished mandates under the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law, could significantly increase the regulatory drag on our economy in 2013.”

  29. Regulatory Cost Comparisons • 2009-2011: This Administration created 953 “economically significant” regulations (in excess of $ 100 million each) • First 3 years of GWB: 30 • Of the 4,062 regulations in the pipeline for this year, 224 fall into that category – 24% higher than than the 180 issued in 2008 under GWB. • House of Representatives has passed almost 40 bills to control regulatory expansion; Senate has refused to hear them.

  30. Six Most Active Rulemaking Agencies • Department of Treasury • Commerce • Department of Interior • Department of Agriculture • Pulling a rabbit out of a hat • Department of Transportation • Environmental Protection Agency (finalized EPA regulations up by 44% in Obama’s first term) • Total of 1,953 Rules for these 6 Agencies • They account for 48% of all federal rules

  31. EPA Regulation of Carbon • Destroy 1.4 million U.S. jobs and cost the economy up to $141 billion by 2014 • 200,000 American manufacturers could lose their jobs • Historically, $ 1 billion worth of investment = 15,500 jobs • 2015 to 2026 average annual impact of carbon regulation would be more than 500,000 jobs, and by 2029 the total economy-wide cost would be close to $7 trillion (roughly ½ of America’s current GDP)

  32. EPA Regulation of Carbon – Wyoming Effects • By the year 2020, average annual household income would decline by b/w $ 894 to $2898 • By the year 2030, average annual household income would decline by b/w $ 3678 and $6707 • Wyoming would stand to lose b/w 2,000 and 3,000 jobs by 2020 • Wyoming would stand to lose b/w 6,000 and 8,000 jobs by 2030 • States GDP would decline by as much as $ 1.4 billion/year

  33. EPA Regulation of Carbon • “No significant impact on reducing global GHG emission growth” • (American Council for Capital Formation)

  34. Obama’s Executive Order on Regulations • Announced in January, 2011: “A government-wide review of the rules already on the books to remove outdated regs that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive.” • 1 rule repealed in 2012 – spilled milk is no longer considered an “oil spill.” • By Nov., 2011, 508 new rules deemed “significant” – impact in excess of $ 100 million each (minimum impact: $50,800,000,000) • By December 2, 2011, 760 new rules deemed “significant” (minimum impact: $ 76,000,000,000)

  35. Regulatory Burden 2011 – A Summary • Pages of regulations published in the Federal Register (2011) • 53,630 as of 9/10/11 • 67,036 as of 10/31/11 • 70,320 as of 11/17/11 • 75,770 as of 12/2/11 • Million hours of annual paperwork burden • 65.1 million hours as of 9/10/11 • 88.2 million hours as of 10/31/11 • 116.3 million hours as of 11/17/11 • 119.4 million hours as of 12/2/11

  36. September, 2011 – During Debt Ceiling Debate • In September, 2011 President Obama delivered to House Speaker Boehner a list of seven (7) regulations. • Total cost: $ 109 billion dollars • A full 0.7% of a years Gross Domestic Product • World Bank: Cost of starting a business in the U.S. doubled b/w 2007 and July, 2012. • “Ease of starting a business” – U.S. has dropped from 3rd in the world to 13th.

  37. Regulatory Burden – January 27, 2012 • 374 days since Executive Order on Regulations • 0 economically significant rules repealed so far (in the last year) • 44 Rules deemed “significant” • $ 7.7 Billion – cost of regulatory burdens from new rules in first 27 days of 2012 • 4456 pages in the Federal Register so far • 25.3 million hours of annual paperwork burden

  38. February 16, 2012 - EPA • The EPA published the Utility MACT (Maximum Achievable Control Technology) rule on Thursday, February 16, 2012. EPA estimates the costs of Utility MACT to be $9.6 billion • The cost of the rule exceeds the benefits by between 1,600 and 19,200 to 1. • According to the EPA: It is “its most expensive rule ever.”

  39. Electrical Rates to Skyrocket • 2015 Capacity Auction (occurred in May, 2012) • $ 136 per megawatt • 8 times higher than the price for 2012 ($ 16 per megawatt) • Mid-Atlantic Region - $ 167 per megawatt • Northern Ohio - $ 357 per megawatt • According to PJM Interconnection (electric grid operator for 13 States): “Capacity prices were higher than last year’s because of retirement of existing coal-fired generation resulting largely from environmental regulations which go into effect in 2015.” • These are not estimates, projections or computer models; they are actual prices that electrical distributors have agreed to pay.

  40. Europe’s Folly – Why follow such nonsense? • Opportunity cost for the UK’s subsidy system for renewables estimated to be 10,000 jobs b/w 2009 and 2010 • Planned offshore wind farm estimated to cost $8972 per household • Cost of conventional energy – 5% of that amount ($ 448.60) • Spain’s subsidies for renewable energy (which increased 5-fold b/w 2004 and 2010) led to the loss of 110,500 jobs

  41. Regulatory Burden – April 27, 2012 • 465 days since President’s Executive Order • 0 Rules repealed up to that point • 257 Rules deemed “significant” (minimum impact $25,700,000,000) • 25348 Pages in the Federal Register • 85.9 million hours of annual paperwork burden

  42. Regulatory Burden – June 22, 2012 • 521 days since President’s Executive Order • Finally -- 4 economically significant rules repealed in 2012 (1 ½ years after the announcement) • 358 Rules deemed “significant” (minimum impact of $35,800,000,000) • 37750 Pages in the Federal Register • 108.3 million hours of annual paperwork burden

  43. April 9, 2013 Headline – Finally!! • “Government slashes red tape with repeal of more than one thousand regulations.” • “Unnecessary regulation causes frustration and imposes costs on business, the community and individuals,” said Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus • “The regulations removed by this instrument form part of the more than 12,000 regulations the Government will be repealing this year.”

  44. Press release issued by ….. • The Attorney General for Australia

  45. Federal Register – Just a Glance • 2012 Federal Register: 78,961 pages • 2010 Federal Register: 81,405 pages (the all-time high) • 2011 Federal Register: 81,247 pages • Federal Register pages devoted solely to final rules: 24,690 pages

  46. Costs of Overregulation – Not Just Monetary • Destruction of our National Forests • 2001 Roadless Rule • GAO Reports • Risk of catastrophic forest fires • Total # of acres burned as of end of August, 2012: 7,724,955 (not all on federal land) – a record year • Risk of beetle outbreak • Routt National Forest – ground zero • Selective Enforcement • Dept. of Labor’s effort to ban anyone under 16 from working on farms/ranches

  47. Real Crisis – remains largely unrecognized • Regulatory burden at local, state and federal level • Regulatory burdens are creating “fuel poverty” • Destroying our economic freedoms and the ability for our next generation to prosper • Our ability to protect our environment is dependent upon our economic prosperity • If we destroy our economy we cannot educate our young people, provide necessary services, etc.

  48. Balanced Approach is Critical • When the government directs its resources to doing things it should not be doing, it becomes incapable of doing those things that it should • A government that is closest to the governed is more responsive and accountable to the people that it was established to serve • Converse is also true • Regulation w/out representation cannot work

  49. Solutions – Some Ideas • There must be an immediate moratorium placed on new regulations • There must a comprehensive analysis of the ones already on the books • Regulations must clearly state that the statutory language controls • Regulations and the regulatory process must be simplified

  50. Additional Solutions • Congress and State Legislatures must prevent “legislative malpractice” • Do not delegate entire authority for lawmaking to the agencies • Reverse the “top down approach” that we have been moving towards since the new deal • President and Congress must be willing to return power to the States • Concentrating power in Washington D.C. does not and cannot work

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