Here at MassTortDefense we try to keep at least one eye on important tort reform efforts, and how they may impact the litigation that we blog about.

That is why we reviewed with great interest the tort reform agenda of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for 2012, which happens to be the organization's 100th year representing the business community.

The head of the Chamber recently delivered the organization's annual State of American Business address to its members. In it, he noted the need for significant regulatory and legal reform:

The regulatory avalanche confronting our job creators is unprecedented. The Labor Department has 100 rule-makings in the pipeline. Dodd-Frank requires 447 rules, 63 reports, and 59 studies. The health care law established 159 new agencies, panels, commissions, and regulatory bodies. EPA has some 200 regulations in the works. The Chamber supports necessary, sensible, and forward-looking regulations -- but not proposals that fail to meet that test. The Chamber is also working to modernize the overall regulatory system—including legislation to reform the permitting process and update the Administrative Procedure Act for the first time since the Truman administration.