unrealistic government regulations before we begin today i know that many of you saw the post standard this morning i would just ask all of you to join me in a moment of silence as you saw the three soldiers from fort dru killed in action in afghanistan they were fathers and husbands and sons and we sit here today and we enjoy the freedom to come together to discuss the american way and american dream and how to thank you at this time i would like to introduce sitting here on the panel with me another member of congress my good friend and colleague also a freshman this year in congress mike kelly from pennsylvania mike's buerkle when we have our full committee hearings in washington dc our chairman darrell issa begins every meeting with the reading of the mission statement of the oversight and government reform and i'd like to read that to you all today i'd like you  understand what this committee is about and howh what our goals are and what our mission statement is oversight committee mission statement we exist to secure two fundamental principles first americans have a right to know that the money washington takes from them is well spent and second americans deserve an efficient effective government that works for them our duty on the oversight and government reform committee is to protect these right our solemn responsibility is to hold government accountable to the taxpayers because taxpayers have a right to know what they get from their government we will work tirelessly in partnership with citizen watch thank you all for coming here today i think that this is an exciting day for us in upstate new york today we will continue an effort that my subcommittee and the oversight and government reform committee have been examining since the beginning of this year our comm focused on the regulatory impediments to job creation we've heard from job creators across the country about how the federal government stifles job creation and today we'll focus on the issues which affect job creation in upstate work the rate is approximately the same in the state of new york eight thousand of our neighbors received unemployment extension benefits during the month of march this is unacceptable and we must create more jobs and turn this economy around for all new yorkers it is only appropriate that we are holding this hearing at the south side innovation center which is an incubator for small business job creation here bob herz and his staff defense contractors and others that employ many of the local communities and provide the necessary goods and services to our region as we attempt to recover our economy and put people of the region back to work we must begin to understand that the regulations these industries face on a daily basis threaten their attempt to survive industry faces an enormous amount of regulations from many federal agencies this committee has heard is particularly harmful because of the difficulty of the implementation and the tremendous cost of compliance it places on a business or a farm these costs negatively impact important job growth these regulations governments and municipalities are struggling to deal with the state of economy while continuing to provide essential services to constituents while dealing with the federal bureaucracy the practice of the federal government pushing unfunded mandates down to the states leaves local municipalities under intense pressure to make business work these local governments already have budgetary constraints and struggle to provide basic services for their constituents moreover regulations that range from health care to street sign replacement pile on even more cost to local governments together with those unfunded mandates this hearing will allow businesses farmers and local governments from new york to provide congress  opportunity to hear how federal agencies affect their ability to create jobs and provide for their communities it's important that you're here today it's important that we're here today so we can listen to you listen to you this is the place where businesses start and when we talk about america we talk about businesses that were started in a garage or in somebody's basement more important somebody's head and they were able to move it forward there's no other place in the world you can do it except for here one thing that we're starting to life i don't know how in the world we've gotten to where we are and more importantly if we don't change ith and this is not about republicans or democratsh this is about americans if we can't get this settled and get it backed off and make sure that the numberhoneh the competitive nature that we have isn't some external factor but actually our own government that makes it impossible for us to succeed then we have failed mightily so i'm glad to be here we do want to listen  we have to hear what you have to say and we have to take the message back to washington and have to be able articulate it the same way you do with passion and intensity to get it fixed again i applaud you for being here ms buerkle thanks so much it's always a pleasure to be here with you we're interested very small sensors and informationprocessing products to enhance the safety of our war fighters and the security of our borders in that most jobs in our country are created by small and medium sized companies from a jobcreation perspective the most onerous regulations are those that slow down the activities of the such companies under secretary of defense ashton carter included the following guidance defense acquisition professionals in a recent memo increase dynamics in the small business role in defense marketplace competition small businesses have repeatedly demonstrated their contribution to leading the nation in  driving the economy by their example of hiring hpercent of all new jobs and holding more patents than all of the nation's universities and large corporations combined the reality is to be eligible for sbir awards and yet these companies are not only a primary source of job creation they're also an exceedingly viable all be it underutilized contributor to the effectiveness of government procurements a number of mediumsized companies possess a combination of attributes rarely exhibited by large companies not only exceptional development production and life cycle support competence but also mediumsized companies can provide the government with significant cost and schedule savings and it is hard to remember a time when these savings were needed more here are some recommendations for regulatory changes that would promote enforce regulations that reduce the acquisition redirections and delays that have a disproportionate impact on mediumsized businesses develop fasttrack versions of government oversight agencies like d opportunity to testify today on these very important issues i would enjoy discussing any of my suggestion compete as a region we have the thirdlargest concentration of higher concentration students in the country we have over one hundred and forty thousand students here in this region a number of those students many of those students especially at schools like allocated across the country in a very rigid basis every state in the nation whether it's north dakota or new york gets thirty of these j visas that obviously doesn't play to the favor of many of our larger industrial states trade we realizeh i think there's an increasing awareness in this region that hpercent of the global growth over the next five years will come from internationalhmarkets ninetyfive percent of the consumers are outside of the united states things like the south korea free trade agreement provide robust economic opportunity for our regional businesses particularly here in new york and in places like pennsylvania where agriculture is an important component for our region's economy and finally procurement you know the united states government spends over yield myself five minutes from overseas to train and to work in their hospital typically these are specialty providers and they typically tend to be specialties for which franklyh that are medical institutions have a hard time filling here in the united states unfortunately when new york state and north dakota receive the same level of visa it puts states like ours at a competitive disadvantage i wouldn't advocate for taking a single j away the state of north dakota but i would think that it might be in the best interest of our country to expand the number of visas that are made available or at a minimum provide the states with some additional flexibility when and where they have a critical shortage  entrepreneurship of small companies but they also have the critical mass to actually do substantial programs much more so than small companies can do can't get those good  this is the only place in the world we can fix it so we'll get that done mr hsimpson a little bit on the course agreement and if you could kind of expand a little bit on the opportunities that await america businesses if we're able to put together not only free but fair trade agreements opportunities for folks here like our furniture manufacturers we have a world renowned furniture manufacturer in stickley company that's very interested in doing increased business in korea companies like nixon gear that do automotive work across the board a number of matter of our lack of will to compete or our lack of ability to compete or intellectually not being able to compete my observation from being at these meetings is we have absolutely put ourselves in such a bad place we limit ourselves and our ability to compete in the world so way so people understand the upside for the united states where the true gains are because we will get people back to work doing what they do best and that is taking care of their families and taking care of their communities so thank you very much