Lincoln to lead regulatory reduction effort

Editor’s note: Roby Brock, with our content partner Talk Business, wrote this report. He can be reached at [email protected]

Former U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., is the high-profile spokesperson for a new small business effort to reduce government regulation that the a new coalition says have increased more than 60% during the past five years.

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) has launched the "Small Businesses for Sensible Regulations," a national effort focused on protecting small businesses and American jobs from the impacts of regulations recently proposed by the Obama administration.

Lincoln is the chairperson of the coalition, which judging from a new web site was just unveiled yesterday.  She took to the airwaves today to discuss the new coalition’s efforts in a CNBC interview. (Link to this Talk Business story to see the video.)

"Regulations can be expensive and overwhelming for small businesses," the web site states in its mission. "Washington’s complex regulatory maze results in a per-employee regulatory cost to a small firm that is nearly 36 percent more than the cost to large firms. In addition, businesses currently waste precious hours completing page after page of federal forms, some of which are duplicative and burdensome.

"Over the past five years, the number of major regulations proposed – having an impact of $100 million or more on the economy – has increased by more than 60 percent," the website also states.

Lincoln, who served for 16 years in Congress and the U.S. Senate, served on a number of committees related to agriculture, finance and energy. During her tenure, she spoke against increasing regulatory burdens, but in her last year in office, she was the decisive vote on a Senate health care plan — a measure many businesses criticized as burdensome for its expected regulatory mandates.

She also was heavily involved in crafting one of the most controversial pieces of legislation aimed at financial regulatory reform, the Dodd-Frank bill, which also has received blistering comments for its regulatory burdens.

Following a bitter Democratic primary against then Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, Lincoln was soundly defeated in the November 2010 general election by then U.S. Rep. John Boozman.