Cost of Regulation

. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) referenced Heritage's research on over-regulation in her opening statement at a hearing of the Senate Committee on Small Business last week: I don't know how to say it any clearer: Excessive regulations are suffocating the entrepreneurial spirit of America's almost 30 million small businesses. The Heritage Foundation, which is testifying here today, suggests that this Administration has embarked on nothing short of regulatory rampage, stampeding over small business, through the promulgation of 43 new major regulations promulgated in fiscal year 2010 – imposing $26.5 billion in new regulatory compliance costs – and that's on top of the $1.75 trillion -- that's trillion with a capital "T"! -- in annual regulatory compliance costs that the Office of Advocacy recently reported.