The Not-So-Hidden Cost of Regulation

Debate after political debate, candidates and other politicians love to throw around trinkets of relief to the business community, most notably promises of "less regulation" and "government intrusion".  Despite all the rhetoric, I needed to spend several hours yesterday with Jon Melchi, our Director of Government Affairs, simply to plan and prioritize other projects, and shift resource allocations so HARDI could be sure to meet six regulatory comment filing deadlines all landing BETWEEN NOW AND FEBRUARY 20!  Not only am I concerned that Jon may not like or perform optimally with 3 hours of sleep per night, how many other HARDI priorities must be delayed or shelved altogether simply so we can perform our essential function of representing our members' interests in this seemingly endless flood of regulatory activity?

Further, as our recent court action challenging a DOE ruling proves, all of this effort throughout these various regulatory proceedings hardly guarantees fair consideration of our concerns these days.  That means these six filings have better than a 50/50 chance of requiring much more staff time and resources in the future.  This is vitally important work for HARDI, our members', and our organization's strategic objectives, however make no mistake that we, and I would assume other organizations like HARDI, would be able to do so much more for our members if we did not have to continually swim upstream in these increasingly rushing regulatory rapids.  Message to today's Presidential candidates and our current President:  cut the rhetoric about reducing "burdensome regulation on business" and actually start doing it today!  Rhetoric will not earn Jon an extra hour or two of sleep.