Each year, my fellow grocers and I take a trip to Washington to meet with our elected officials in Congress who serve the people of Missouri. We meet with all offices, from Sens. Roy Blunt and Claire McCaskill to each member of Congress. This year the topic at the forefront of our discussion was how the federal regulatory process in Washington is negatively affecting our industry's ability to plan and invest. Our message was clear: Complying with costly, outmoded and duplicative mandates handed down from dozens of federal regulatory agencies has become an increasing burden on Missouri businesses. While many things are going right in the Show Me State, regulations regularly rank among the top issues facing small businesses.

Missouri's unemployment rate stands at 6.7 percent, on par with the national average. However, while the national rate has been steadily declining, state unemployment is on the rise. A key factor is the inability of businesses to make plans to expand their business and hire workers because of uncertainty about unforeseen costs, paperwork, training and other requirements necessary to ensure compliance with federal mandates.

Federal regulations are increasingly confusing, contradictory and at odds with other rules already on the books at the state or federal level. With more than 3,300 regulations in the pipeline and nearly 750 proposed rules in the first three months of 2014 alone, it's time we consider the direct correlation between this burden and local economies.

Economists Edward Prescott and Lee Ohanian say the annual startup rate for new businesses is 28 percent less than in the 1980s. Moreover, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Small Business Optimism Index found nearly 60 percent of small business owners believe it's a bad time to expand their business, due in part to federal regulations. To put our state's economy on a growth trajectory, we need to reverse this sentiment.

To be clear, regulations play an important role in society, safeguarding our community, workers and the environment. In the grocery business, especially, regulations are essential to ensure the highest-quality food and other products on the shelves. However, today good regulations are not being adequately enforced, new regulations are being proposed at a rapid pace and the process is increasingly complex and costly.

Take, for example, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed expansion of the Clean Water Act. Under the proposed new rules, a grocery store might now need a federal wetland permit to expand a parking lot on a piece of land with a small ditch that fills with water when it rains. With the average cost of a Clean Water Act permit costing more than $270,000 nearly a decade ago, according to an analysis by the NIFB, this new regulatory burden will add an unnecessary cost to grocers and small businesses, with questionable benefits.

When our members met in Washington last week, they spoke with one voice on the need for reforms in Washington that enable small businesses to grow and expand. As long as onerous new rules with little benefits are added to the current broken system, Missouri businesses and their workers will spend time and resources away from expanding.

Small businesses are often referred to as the engine of job growth in our economy. It's time to clear roadblocks and modernize the regulatory process so that federal mandates can ensure protections without stifling needed investment.