Regulatory and Legal Reform

Smart regulation is critical to protecting worker safety, public health and our environment. Overregulation will hold back our country’s economic potential and undermine manufacturers’ competitiveness. Reforming the nation’s broken legal and regulatory systems, ensuring regulations achieve their intended goal without unnecessarily harming competitiveness, will help fully unleash our economic engine.

$3.079 trillion
Cost of federal regulations to the U.S. economy
$465 billion
Increase in aggregate regulatory compliance costs since 2012
$277k
Avg. annual compliance costs for a U.S. firm
$29,100
Avg. per employee cost of regulations for manufacturers
$50,100
Avg. per employee cost of regulations for small manufacturers (<50 employees)

View our 2023 Cost of Regulations Study

Manufacturers' Priorities

  1. 1
    Strengthen, streamline and codify the regulatory system to improve regulatory outcomes, increase accountability through meaningful retrospective reviews and sunset outdated and ineffective regulations.
  2. 2
    Set and enforce responsible regulatory budgets, conduct rigorous oversight and hold independent regulatory agencies accountable for discretionary regulations, improved transparency and the quality of the rules they issue.
  3. 3
    Reinstate mandatory penalties for lawyers who file frivolous lawsuits and prevent abuses of the class action and mass torts systems, as well as the public nuisance doctrine.
  4. 4
    Promote the efficient, cost-effective resolution of litigation, including through alternative dispute resolution.
  5. 5
    Support clear standards for liability and the rigorous application of procedural rules, including statutes of limitations and relevance and proportionality requirements in discovery, as well as limits on punitive damages and case consolidation.
  6. 6
    Resist calls for punitive changes to the review process for mergers, acquisitions and significant capital investments that could undercut the consumer welfare standard and harm America’s economic competitiveness.
  7. 7
    Maintain and support legislation that guarantees unified and predictable federal preemption for federally approved and regulated products and services in national commerce and limits state law tort lawsuits that unacceptably interfere with federal regulatory regimes
  8. 8
    Oppose legislation that incentivizes and subsidizes litigation against manufacturers.
  9. 9
    Oppose efforts to prohibit binding arbitration clauses in employment, consumer and commercial contracts when arbitration programs meet a high standard for due process and protect the rights of all parties involved.
  10. 10
    Support legislation that reduces the availability of counterfeits on e-commerce platforms, acts against IP infringement, provides up-to-date enforcement capability and improves government collaboration to fight fake goods.

Manufacturers for Sensible Regulations

The National Association of Manufacturers, members of the NAM’s Council of Manufacturing Associations and Conference of State Manufacturers Associations launched Manufacturers for Sensible Regulations to address the impact of the current regulatory onslaught coming from federal agencies. To ensure manufacturers remain competitive, we are calling on the White House to designate a senior-level adviser to coordinate efforts within the White House to ensure that federal regulators are implementing policies that align with the president’s promise to promote the growth of manufacturing in America.

For more information, please contact us at .

 READ COALITION LETTER

Notable Members