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2015 was a busy year in landscape government affairs issues at the federal level, with departments and agencies proposing new and restrictive regulations. It almost appears that they were told to open up the flood gates with regulations they wanted to be imple- mented, and were told to not worry if the regulation was adequately researched or had a full economic evaluation. Also used on some regulations was the Interim Final Rule (IFR) procedure, which avoids a large amount of comments and fast tracks them. This procedure is used when an agency finds that it has good cause to issue a final rule without first publishing a pro- posed rule, it often characterizes the rule as an "interim final rule," or "interim rule." This type of rule becomes effective immediately upon publication. In most cases, the agency stipulates that it will alter the interim rule if warranted by public comments. If the agency decides not to make changes to the interim rule, it generally will publish a brief final rule in the Federal Register confirming that decision. More regulated industries experienced fewer new firm births and slower employ- ment growth between 1998 and 2011. This relationship is most evident in small firms rather than large firms. P r e s i d e n t O b a m a ' s a d m i n i s t r a - tion pace of regulations has exceeded President Bush's, despite having once said that he has approved fewer regula- tions in his first term than his Republican predecessor. When they were analyzed, they were also more costly. The President doesn't say things like that anymore. Instead, at this phase of his presidency, he promises to act without Congress wherever possible. America's regulatory process was designed nearly 70 years ago; we are now confronted with a growing number of massive, costly, and complex rules. These growing regulatory burdens and the uncertainty caused by badly written regulations are a fundamen- tal problem. We feel that federal regulations should be narrowly tailored, supported by strong and credible data and evidence, and impose the least burden possible while still implementing Congressional intent. Not so with this current administration. Another detriment to many regulations is a new report found more regulated industries experienced fewer new firm births and slower employment growth between 1998 and 2011. This relationship is most evident in small firms rather than large firms. Examples of these kinds of regulations are the Department of Labor's H-2B new IFR and overtime pay rule with 290,000 com- ments, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Waters of the U.S. (WOTUS) rule with 1,124,309 comments made. The only way to stop some of these regulations or rules is in the federal courts or in Congress's annual appropriations legislation of a departments funds with language to not fund a regulation so it can't be enforced, which is being done on both these rules. In fact, on the H-2B rule, there were more than five federal court cases; three of which involved the National Association of Landscape Professionals. Another example of overreach by the administration was President Obama's deportation amnesty rule that in May was blocked in a federal appeals court when they refused to lift an injunction. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit sided with a lower court that ruled President Obama probably broke the law in taking unilateral action last year to grant an amnesty from deportation. They also denied a govern- ment request to allow the amnesty to go into effect in the 24 states that didn't sue, saying that it was critical to have a "uniform" rule on immigration, as the Constitution requires. This one action negatively affected any positive immigra- tion action in the Congress. What do we have to look forward to next year? In December, many of the states start pre-filing new legislative bills. We expect to see more neonicotinoids pesticide restrictive legislation intro- duced. We have new EPA proposed changes to the training and certification requirements of Restrictive Use Pesticides (RUPs), which will cause most states to change their laws or regulations on lawn and landscape applicators that only use general use pesticides. Results will make the process more costly to maintain pesticide licenses and open up pesticide laws for negative additions or changes. We will have the EPA's Registration Review of the pyrethroid family of insecticides underway. One of our concerns is that EPA risk management decisions may occur in advance of, or without considering, the benefits these products bring to our industry. Results can be a negative economic impact if pyrethroid product labels carried significant use restrictions. All the issues in 2015 will continue to be issues in the next year with additional new ones. Tom Delaney is director of government affairs at the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP). www.landscapeirrigation.com Landscape and Irrigation November/December 2015 49 STAYING CURRENT This year's legislative challenges will continue to the next ILLUSTRATION ABOVE ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/SMARTBOY10 LI ■ BY TOM DELANEY We feel that federal regulations should be narrowly tailored, supported by strong and credible data and evidence, and impose the least burden possible while still implementing Congressional intent. Not so with this current administration.