Click here to watch Sen. Barrasso’s remarks.

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor about the onslaught of costly and job-crushing regulations coming out of the Obama administration.

Transcript of Senator Barrasso’s remarks:

“Last Friday, the Obama administration released the latest numbers on unemployment and jobs.

“Once again, the numbers were grim. Experts predicted that our economy would create 200,000 new jobs in September.

“Instead, they fell woefully short, got just 140,000, so they’re about 60,000 jobs short.

“Now that’s a big miss – and it’s nowhere near as many jobs as American families need right now.

“So here’s how Investor’s Business Daily put it in a headline Monday, Oct. 5th, yesterday: ‘Private Hiring Pace Is Worst in 3 Years; Labor Force Shrinks.’

“Wages have gone almost nowhere for six years – they actually declined in September.

“It’s 74 straight months with wage growth below 2.5 percent.

“Before the recession, we routinely got three percent growth, month after month.

“President Obama seems to be satisfied with this limping progress.

“He bragged over the weekend about how many jobs have been created while he’s been president. Is missing expectations good enough for President Obama?

“It’s not good enough for me. It’s not good enough to give the economic growth that we need in this country and that we should have had coming out of a recession.

“One of the very big reasons for this slow growth is all of the regulations that this administration has piled onto the backs of American families.

“Since 2009, this administration has come out with more than 2,500 regulations, new regulations.

“According to the American Action Forum, the total cost of all these new regulations, this new red tape, is about $680 billion.

“Now that’s more than $2,100 for every man, woman, and child in America right now.

“According to the World Bank, the United States is 46th in the world in terms of how easy it is to start a business.

“Is 46th in the world good enough? May be good enough for President Obama, I don’t think it’s good enough for the American people.

“All of these regulations, they just make it very tough for someone to start a business right now.

“It’s also tough for existing businesses to create new jobs.

“Last week, the energy company Royal Dutch Shell announced that it was going to suspend drilling for oil off the coast of Alaska.

“It said one of the reasons was ‘the challenging and unpredictable federal regulatory environment in offshore Alaska.’

“Too much regulation is making it too difficult to produce the American energy that we need – and to create the American jobs that we need.

“Unelected, unaccountable Washington bureaucrats have been having a field day at the expense of our economy.

“Now as the Obama administration runs down, it is in a race to get even more rules on the books.

“Just last week, the administration announced three big new regulations.

“On Tuesday, the EPA finalized a rule on oil refineries.

“It’s going to require refineries to install new equipment – to spend more money on something other than creating jobs, other than paying higher wages to their workers.

“It’s estimated that the rule could cost up to $1 billion – and provide very little in the way of health benefits.

“Then on Wednesday, the EPA finalized more limits on coal, gas, and nuclear power plants. Just like Tuesday’s rule, this one is going to cost another half a billion dollars a year.

“The rule sets the acceptable amount of some emissions at zero.

“Finally, on Thursday, the EPA released a new limit on ozone in the air.

“The limit was 75 parts per billion, they cut it to 70 parts per billion.

“Now this is a tiny change, we’re talking parts per billion, but that tiny change is going to cost more than $2 billion a year once the rule is in full effect.

“Huge chunks of the country are going to have to adjust to meet the new standard – and the benefit is minuscule.

“Farms and small manufacturing companies will to have to buy new equipment, or change the way they do things.

“States and cities will have to change how they do local transportation projects.

“All of that adds up to lost jobs – and even less economic growth than we’ve had the past six years.

“Huge effects, all to chase another few tiny parts per billion of ozone. Five parts per billion—it’s the equivalent of five seconds out of 32 years. That’s how small it is, but the costs are enormous.

“Three days last week – three new regulations, that are going to cost our economy billions of dollars at a time when private hiring pace worst in three years, labor force shrinks.

“We all agree that reasonable regulations make good sense.

“In the 1960s and ‘70s, regulations helped to clean up pollution in our air, in our land, and in our water.

“But now, Washington bureaucrats are chasing after smaller and smaller trace amounts of chemicals, no matter what the cost, how high the cost, how insignificant the benefits.

“EPA issued one rule—I mean it’s hard to believe, I thought this was a misprint but it’s not—they issued one rule that had about $9.6 billion per year to administer – and what are the benefits? Only $4 million.

“I thought they had misplaced or misspelled the ‘b’ and ‘m’ but no, $9.6 billion and only $4 million in direct benefits.

“That’s as much as $2,400 in costs, for every one dollar in benefits. I mean how can they do this?

“The EPA tried to say, well, there are all sorts of what they called ‘ancillary benefits.’

“Who gets to decide how much these are worth? Apparently the Obama administration says that it does.

“It’s no surprise that the administration cooks up an imaginary number for those theoretical benefits, not direct benefits, but their ‘ancillary benefits’ and they say it’s big enough to balance the very real costs that American families feel.

“It’s all a way to justify these ridiculous rules—rules that destroy jobs, that restrict freedom, and do very little good for Americans.

“It is Washington and this administration run amok.

“Is the Obama administration trying to make sure that our economy continues to limp along like it has for the past six-and-a-half years? Is that what they want?

“In 1972, the Clean Water Act was meant to protect ‘navigable waters.’ That was reasonable. We want to protect our navigable waters.

“Today, the administration has a new water rule, it’s called the Waters of the United States.

“It’s going to give Washington bureaucrats control over everything from irrigation ditches to small natural ponds in someone’s back yard.

“This is unreasonable. Where does it end?

“Well, bipartisan majorities in the Congress already say it needs to end now.

“I’ve introduced a bill that would direct the Obama administration to come up with a new rule on Waters of the United States.

“One that protects traditional navigable water from pollution, which we must do, but it also protecting farmers, ranchers, and private landowners.

“We can do both.

“This legislation has 46 cosponsors – Democrats and Republicans. We are telling the Obama administration that enough is enough.

“I expect the Senate to take up this bill in the next few months – and to tell President Obama that enough is enough.

“Republicans are also ready to take on some of these other outrageous rules – like the extreme new restrictions on power plants.

“That’s what Congress is going to be doing to stop the insanity of these out-of-control regulations and out-of-control regulators. We need to cut through the red tape.

“Americans want to get back to work – they want to get our economy going again. Congress needs to help them do it, because this administration certainly is not.

“The Obama administration basically needs to get out of the way.”

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