WASHINGTON — House Republicans are turning to their business allies as they move to scrap Obama administration programs and regulations as varied as controlling greenhouse gases, regulating the Internet and modifying home mortgages.
Incoming committee chairmen already have asked businesses to identify regulations that kill jobs. They’ve also denounced new climate-change rules, pledged to stop regulation of the Internet and proposed shutting down a troubled program to modify mortgages.
Businesses will have their biggest government role since George W. Bush was president and Tom DeLay of Texas was a leader in a Republican-run House. Dick Cheney, as vice president, generated a political firestorm when it was learned that energy-producing industries played a large role in his task force that formed Bush’s energy policy. DeLay’s “K Street Project” gave loyal GOP lobbyists access to top officials.
The chief Republican investigator in the 112th Congress that began Wednesday is Rep. Darrell Issa. As incoming chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Issa wrote 150 trade associations, companies and think tanks last month seeking to identify regulations that businesses believe hurt job creation.
“In fiscal year 2010, federal agencies promulgated 43 major new regulations,” the California congressman wrote. “. . . I ask for your assistance in identifying existing and proposed regulations that have negatively impacted job growth in your members’ industry.”
Among those receiving the letters were Duke Energy, the Association of American Railroads, chemical manufacturer FMC Corp., Toyota Motor Corp., Bayer, the American Petroleum Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association.
Rep. Fred Upton, new chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, already has targeted the Environmental Protection Agency’s first regulatory proposals for limiting greenhouse gases and a Federal Communications Commission decision to regulate the Internet.
Issa named Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio as the GOP subcommittee chairman who will investigate wasteful spending and federal regulations. Jordan said small-business owners tell him federal requirements “drive them nuts.” He said an electrical contractor in his district complained that he posts required health and safety rules, but “none of my guys read them.”
Jordan wants to shut down the administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program to provide mortgage relief, saying it is a costly failure.
Congressional leaders
THE HOUSE
• Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, above, is second in the presidential line of succession, behind the vice president.
• Majority leader: Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va.
• Majority whip: Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.
• Minority leader: Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
• Minority whip: Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
THE SENATE
• Majority leader: Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.
• Majority whip: Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.
• Minority leader: Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
• Minority whip: Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.
Photo: Olivier Douliery, AbacaPress/MCT
