| Growth
in Regulation
 In
2003, federal government agencies issued a remarkable 4,148 new
rules, which are listed in the 71,269-page Federal Register, according
to the Heartland Institute.
Although
the cost of the new rules is nowhere to be found in the Register,
the total regulatory burden for 2003 approached almost $1 trillion.
The five most rule-producing agencies are: Department of Treasury,
Transportation, Homeland Security, Agriculture and the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA).
Moreover,
according to the latest report from the Office of Management and
Budget:
-
Costs of federal regulations amounted to between $34 and $39 billion
from 1993 to 2004.
-
Total regulatory costs reached about $869 billion in 2002, more
than twice the federal budget deficit, and more than Canada's
entire gross domestic product.
-
Furthermore, regulatory agencies spent $30.8 billion to administer
regulations, increasing the total to $899.8 billion.
There
is good news, however:
- The
Federal Register has actually shrunk from 75,606 pages in 2002.
- Congress
passed and the president signed only 198 bills in 2003, relatively
low compared to federal agencies
Clyde
Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute argues that
regulations should be treated as federal spending; Congress should
be held accountable for compliance costs by studying the actual
benefits versus the costs. Since agencies police themselves, however,
they tend to overstate the benefits; therefore, a third party must
be included in the review process.
Additionally,
Congress should be required to vote on rules imposed by agencies
before they become binding, and to disclose costs to the public
for all regulations, even those that pass congressional muster.
For
Wayne text:
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=15430
For
OMB report summary:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/inforeg/draft_2004_cbreport_es.pdf
For
more on Regulatory Issues (Compliance Costs)
http://www.ncpa.org/iss/reg/
Adopted
from Clyde Wayne Crews, Jr., "Federal Regulations Back to Near-Record
Levels," Heartland Institute, August 2004; and "Informing
Regulatory Decisions: 2004 Draft Report to Congress on the Costs
and Benefits of Federal Regulations and Unfunded Mandates on State,
Local and Tribal Entities," Office of Management and Budget,
August 2004.
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