Regulatory overreach and the family farm

This past week, the House of Representatives passed the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act, a bipartisan bill that I was proud to coauthor with Rep. Kristi Noem, R-S.D., in order to protect our farmers, small businesses and rural communities from the threat of the Environmental Protection Agency’s otherwise unchecked ability to put forth more stringent regulations when it comes to naturallyoccurring dust. This important legislation now will head to the U.S. Senate for consideration as the House continues forward with its job creation agenda.

In Central and Southside Virginia, we have a proud heritage in agriculture, manufacturing and Main Street businesses that create jobs for thousands of Virginians. As I continue to hear from our farmers and small business owners in the Fifth District, it is clear that our heritage and the very future of our country is being threatened by the federal government.

Unemployment levels both at home and across the country remain unacceptably high, and with the nearly 200 major federal government regulations scheduled to be proposed in 2011 alone, it is clear that this uncertainty has kept our economy from rebounding.

While it is true that federal regulations are necessary in certain instances, there are too many that are simply unnecessary. It is these regulations that drive up costs for job creators while providing uncertainty in the process, placing undue burdens on those that are struggling to make ends meet.

One such example was brought to me by a Southside small business owner whom I spoke with last year and who told me that he was reprimanded by a regulator and told to curb the amount of “fugitive dust” coming from the dirt driveway leading into his facility or risk facing enforcement action.

While this is one story of a Fifth District job creator who has been threatened by burdensome regulations, I have heard from countless others who say that abundant government regulations threaten the livelihood of their businesses.

Here in Washington, my top priority is addressing the concerns that I hear back home, and a top concern I have heard is that the fear of government regulations cripples small business and job creation across Central and Southside Virginia. The Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act addresses these concerns by ensuring that regulators— in this case the EPA— cannot impose a one-size-fits-all dust standard for rural communities.

The type of dust this bill seeks to exempt from federal regulation is a necessary byproduct of the hard work our farmers and businesses across Southside Virginia and rural America produce every day and are generated by things as simple as driving along a rural country road, or things as uncontrollable as wind blowing dust across a farm.

If deemed to exceed coarse particulate matter standards set forth by the EPA, this naturally occurring dust would lead to unimaginable increased costs to those in violation of the standards.

According to the Small Business Administration, federal regulations cost our economy $1.75 trillion per year.

That is why we in the House of Representatives continue to advance policies that will get our staggering national debt under control and create an economic environment that is conducive to job creation and private business expansion.

By advancing policies like the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act, we will create more certainty for our job creators, we will remove the roadblocks posed by excessive regulations, and we will get our economy back on the right track. It is my hope that the Senate will recognize this and act on this important legislation.

Hurt, a Republican, represents the Fifth Congressional District of Virginia in the House of Representatives.