FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 8, 1995
CONTACT: Dana Hagerty (202) 225-2165
ST. CLOUD -- Congressman Collin C. Peterson (DFL-7th District), ranking minority member on the Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, hosted a subcommittee field hearing Monday, August 7th, in St. Cloud. Subcommittee Chairman David McIntosh (R-IN) and Congressman Gil Gutknecht (R-MN) joined Peterson at the hearing.
"Regulatory reform has been at the top of this subcommittee's agenda since this session began. As a result of our efforts, the House has passed legislation that just might get us all going in the right direction," Peterson said in his opening statement. "All of the significant regulatory reform legislation passed by the House this session started in our subcommittee, including the Regulatory Moratorium Act, the Regulatory Flexibility Act, the Regulatory Sunset Act, and legislation dealing with risk assessment.
"There are so many federal regulations on the books right now that it would take you about eight years to just read them all. Is anyone in the bureaucracy keeping track of what is working and what needs to continue?," Peterson said. "The clear intent of all this regulatory reform legislation, which I have supported, is to reduce the number of federal rules and regulations we all have to deal with."
One of those testifying at the hearing was Michael Helgeson, CEO of Gold'n Plump Poultry, an integrated broiler company with operations in Central Minnesota and Western Wisconsin.
"The Clinton Administration recently estimated the cost of federal regulation to be $430 billion per year - or about 7.9 percent of our nation's Gross National Product," Helgeson said. "This level of regulation puts American producers at a tremendous competitive disadvantage. Regulatory reform is needed to improve our international competitiveness by increasing productivity and ultimately resulting in more jobs for American workers.
"The food and agriculture system in the United States employs 21 million people and generates 16 percent of the nation's income," Helgeson said, "yet agricultural policies and regulations of the 1930's are burdening our current system. We need to modernize agricultural policies to achieve market based reforms that will allow the sector to prosper and grow into the next century."
Also testifying at the hearing was Harold E. Anderson, President of Anderson Trucking Service, Inc. (ATS) in St. Cloud.
Anderson's example of problems with federal regulations stems from a highway project near Anderson Trucking Service's principal maintenance facility.
"Highway 23 is two lanes at the present time, however future plans call for Highway 23 to be widened into a four lane highway. We have asked that turn lanes be installed and that the widening process include a median separation. A width of no less than eighty feet is needed between the lanes so that a truck would have room to stop before crossing over to the other lane. This is a key safety factor. But because a small portion of the land needed for this is considered a wetland, the Highway Department is prohibited by the EPA from doing this."
Anderson told the subcommittee that these problems could be avoided if wetlands regulations were more sensitive to safety issues, adding that small changes in median widths have higher impacts on safety than the marginal benefit of wetland reduction.
"When it comes to highway planning and development," Anderson said, "the highway department should be making these decisions."
Peterson concluded the hearing by saying, "We are not trying to repeal regulations that are protecting the environment or food safety or workplace safety. That would not have the support of the American people. But we should be willing to re-examine and eliminate regulations that are counterproductive or unnecessary. There are 204 volumes of federal regulations and many of these rules are outdated. Something has to be done to decide which ones we can safely get rid of, and that is what our hearing is all about. I hope Minnesotans will be willing to join this effort for rational, constructive change."