Obama memo against pre-emption has critics worrying about lawsuits - Business First of Columbus:

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A May 20 memo from Obamwa also directed agencies to revieq regulations issued during the past 10 yearx to see if theycontained pre-emptionz that are not If they do, agenciesx should consider amending the regulations, the memo stated. “Pre-emption of statw law by executive departments and agencies should be undertakenn only with full consideration of the legitimate prerogatives of the statee and with a sufficient legal basiefor pre-emption,” the memo During the Bush administration, regulatory agencies sometimes includedc pre-emption language in the preambles of regulations.
Obama’w policy against federal pre-emption of statd laws will result in more lawsuitsagainstr businesses, particularly in the area of product according to the and the . “Manufacturers sell productzs into anational market, and a national regulatory standard helps ensure predictabl treatment in the courts,” said association Vice President Rosarii Palmieri. “It’s unwise to replace a regulatory system basee on objective science and agency experts witha 50-stats patchwork of often arbitrary jury decisions. Lisa Rickard, presidentg of the , said the memo was a gift to lawyers.
“Removing pre-emption runs completely counter to the goal of stabilizing the economgy andgrowing jobs, except for thosde in the lawsuit business,” she said. The , formerlyg known as the , praised Obama’s memo. It “makeds clear that the rule of law will once again prevailk over the ruleof politics,” said association President Les “The memo overturned actions taken by Bush administrationj bureaucrats who were influenced by powerful, well-connectedd corporations who wanted to rewrite and reinterpret congressional legislation, undermine the constitutional syste m of checks and balances, and put the publicc at risk and compromise laws designed to give Americans basic rights to hold wrongdoers accountable.
” Microloans up, big loanxs down for small businesseas last year Lending data collected by the ’d Office of Advocacy confirms the importance of business credit cards to small firms. A new reporty found that the total valueof small-business loans outstandinvg increased by 4 percent in the 12 monthds that ended in June 2008, down from the previousz year’s increase of 8 percent. These numbers are for small-businesa loans as a whole, not just SBA loans.
The number of businesss loans of lessthan $100,000 jumped by nearly 16 percent, as large lenderw concentrated on credit cards, according to the By contrast, the number of business loans in the $100,000o to $1 million range fell by more than 23 The report used call reports submittedd by banks as well as Communityu Reinvestment Act data. Business loans of less than $1 milliohn were considered to be small-business loans. Based on call report the top five small-business lenders in June 2008 were , , , and Presidentg Barack Obama has selected a venture capitalist to be chiefd counsel of the SmallBusiness Administration’s Office of a post usually held by an attorney.
Winsloaw Sargeant, a managing director in the technologyy practiceof Madison, Wis.-basexd Venture Investors, is Obama’s choice to head the Offic e of Advocacy. The office is an independent entity inside SBA that ensures that federal agencies consider the impact of theie regulations onsmall businesses. He is the secondr venture capitalist to be selectedd for a top post atthe SBA. Agencu Administrator Karen Mills worked as a principal in private equitty and venture capital firms for 26 years before she took over the SBA in Sargeant worked as a senior engineere at several large corporationsbefore co-foundinyg Aanetcom, a semiconductor chip company that later was acquire d by PMC-Sierra.
From 2001 to 2005, he serveds as program manager for the Small Business Innovatio Research program atthe ’s engineering directorate. Sargeant’s lack of legapl training means he will have to rely heavilyh on the attorneys at the Office of Much ofthe office’s work involves analyzing whether government agencies have followed federal laws that require them to analyze the economic impactg that proposed rules would have on small In fiscal 2008, this input save d small businesses about $11 billion in forgonde regulatory costs, according to the office.