Obama administration aims to save businesses money
President Barack Obama’s administration plans to release final plans today for ending or cutting back hundreds of regulations in an effort to save businesses about $10 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Administration officials said many of the reforms will focus on small businesses. The changes include requiring the Small Business Administration to adopt a single electronic application for potential borrowers.
The Department of Health and Human Services will work to remove “unnecessary regulatory and reporting requirements” on hospitals and health-care providers to save potentially $4 billion over five years, Cass Sunstein, administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, wrote in an op-ed article for The Wall Street Journal.
Other changes: The Department of Transportation will work to eliminate regulations on the railroad industry that could save about $340 million. The Environmental Protection Agency will propose a rule to make it easier for hazardous-waste generators to report electronically, saving up to $126 million per year.
“We are going to implement statutes that have been enacted in the last few years, but we’re trying to do it in a way that is as careful with respect to cost and as attuned with the economic situation as possible,” Sunstein said in an interview with the Journal.