"Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens," Thomas Jefferson once said.

"They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bands."

Indeed, to Jefferson and many of our Founders, America’s small farms embodied some of the most important values upon which the country was founded – including hard work, self-reliance, and family.

That’s why it’s so disappointing to see new rules coming from the Obama Administration that threaten the very agricultural way of life that our Founders deemed so important.

Last September, the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed new regulations that would ban anyone under the age of 16 from performing the most common of tasks – such as cleaning out stalls with a wheelbarrow and shovel, rounding up cattle on horseback, or operating a tractor – on a farm. As my colleague Senator Jerry Moran put it: “To most young people growing up on [a] family farm, those jobs are routine. It’s a part of their lives. And these Department of Labor regulations are going to intrude significantly in that ability.”

The consequences of DOL’s new regulations don’t stop there, however. The department is also proposing to curtail the ability of some family farms to hire relatives, and its regulations are likely to impair successful farm training and certification programs conducted by organizations such as the National FFA, 4-H, and Department of Agriculture.

This is all very worrying.

In fact, I understand just the type of impact this could have on the more than 95 percent of our country's 2 million farms that are family owned – because I, too, worked with my father caring for our livestock until I went off to college. Of course, I didn’t always enjoy the early mornings or the hard work, but I know how much the experience helped me grow as a person. It taught me the importance of the quintessentially American values that Jefferson spoke of so eloquently, and it instilled a deeper understanding and respect for my family for which I am truly thankful.

I want others to have the opportunity to pursue the hard work and self-reliance that our Founders espoused. Unfortunately, there are some in Washington who prefer to interfere with the ability of ordinary Americans to engage in those activities. These bureaucrats may have the best of intentions, but we know all too well that what makes sense to D.C. elites often just makes things worse for regular Americans that actually have to live with the consequences of their actions.

So, before making such drastic changes, it’s incumbent upon the DOL to produce dependable facts and figures that demonstrate the need for this type of dramatic action. Yet, the department admits that it lacks the data to justify many of its proposals. And, with youth-related injuries from farm accidents actually declining by about 60 percent from 1998 to 2009 (according to the National Farm Medicine Center), it’s hard to see this as anything more than misplaced meddling. The DOL regulations, in short, represent a solution in search of a problem.

Washington does not know what’s better for the children of America’s farm families than their parents, and it should not pretend it does.

For these reasons, I recently joined a bipartisan group of dozens of other senators in sending a letter to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to request that these regulations be withdrawn. I hope that she will understand the need to preserve America’s struggling family farms.

There is no reason to deny future generations of Americans the ability to participate in one of our country’s greatest traditions. Surely, Jefferson would agree.

Sen. Jon Kyl is the Senate Republican Whip and serves on the Senate Finance and Judiciary committees.

Visit his website at www.kyl.senate.gov or his YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/senjonkyl.