"Government regulations and red tape are one of the top concernsof our members," said Karen Harned, executive director of the SmallBusiness Legal Center at the National Federation of IndependentBusiness (NFIB), in a recent press release.

According to Harned, most small business owners cannot count onregulatory compliance specialists and lawyers to help them keep upwith all of the new federal regulations that they must follow. Onlylarger companies can afford these specialists. "With an average often new regulations a day, small business owners are spending moretime on paperwork and less time focusing on their business," shesaid. "That is bad for their bottom line and for job growthnationwide."

Harned added that regulatory costs for small businesses are nowalmost $12,000 per employee per year, which is 30 percent higherthan the regulatory cost burden that larger businesses face.

Last month, NFIB warned Congress that the federal regulatorybureaucracy is a "runaway train, and that the office in charge ofapproving regulations appears to be asleep at the switch."

Harned testified at a House Judiciary Subcommittee on RegulatoryReform hearing, which was reviewing the regulatory actions of theObama administration. The specific focus of the subcommittee was onthe activities of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs(OIRA), which has final review over all impending regulations. TheOIRA is a branch of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

"OIRA is not performing the rigorous independent analysis neededto ensure that the proposed benefits of a new rule truly outweighthe negative economic impacts," she said. "They are supposed tomake sure that the agencies are doing their homework, but insteadthey just seem to be acting as a rubber stamp right now."

She cited two examples in specific of how government agenciesrecently failed to consider the harm done to small businesses byregulations.

One was the "waters of the United States regulation,"promulgated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and theArmy Corps of Engineers, which was pushed forward despiteobjections from the Office of Advocacy of the Small BusinessAdministration. One of the objections from the Office of Advocacywas that the EPA and Army Corps had refused to conduct a requiredRegulatory Flexibility Act study.

The other was the recent Department of Labor rule that wouldmore than double the salary threshold for required overtime pay.According to the NFIB, that rule would be particularly expensivefor small businesses in small and rural markets, where cost ofliving and average wages tend to be lower.

Harned also testified about the NFIB's concern over a trend foragencies to push new policies forward that are even outside of theregulatory process, called "subregulatory" activities.