White House takes steps to cut business red tape

The White House on Thursday announce steps to cut federal red tape it said would save billions of dollars over time, seeking to placate businesses complaining about what they see as an undue regulatory burden. The reforms, which scrutinised everything the federal government regulates from worker safety rules to safeguards on milk and eggs, follow a request from President Barack Obama in January to improve or remove any rules that were out of date.
"As a result of that review, agencies have identified initiatives with the potential to eliminate tens of millions of hours in reporting burdens, and billions of dollars in regulatory costs," the White House said in a statement. The president's decision to streamline federal rules as he sought to improve relations with the business community, followed a drubbing for his Democrats in November elections.
Obama's re-election hopes in 2012 rest in large part on his ability to get US unemployment levels down from current high levels of 9 percent. Meanwhile, the president's Republican opponents are fighting him over measures like Obama's reforms of healthcare and the financial services industry, which they say burdens business at the cost of jobs and growth.
Savings outlined from the red tape review released by the White House on Thursday include a plan being considered by the Transportation Department that would yield an immediate $400 million from "refinements to railroad safety standards, and up to $1 billion over 20 years," the White House said. In addition, the Environmental Protection Agency will propose savings of $670 million over the next decade by ending the rule for many states requiring vapour recovery systems at some local gas stations.
This was seen as no longer necessary "because modern vehicles already have effective air pollution control technologies," the White House said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will remove 1.9 million annual hours of "redundant reporting burdens" on employers, which the Obama administration estimates will save $40 million a year. The agency was also planning to finalise a proposal to harmonise US hazard classifications and labels with those used by other nations, yielding an "annualised $585 million in estimated savings for employers" the White House said.