Federal Regulatory Reform: An Overview

Publication Date: April 2004

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Government

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Abstract:

Over the past several decades there have been numerous attempts in Congress and elsewhere to modify the federal rulemaking process. Underlying many of these "regulatory reform" efforts is a perceived need to reduce the burden associated with regulatory compliance. Proponents of reform contend that federal regulations are too costly, time consuming, complex, and intrusive for businesses and other regulated parties, and that better crafted rules can be developed through, among other things, the use of sophisticated analytical tools and greater oversight by the President and Congress. On the other hand, some contend that these reform efforts focus too much on the costs of regulations and do not adequately recognize the benefits that the rules provide. They also argue that additional requirements will have the effect of eroding existing regulatory protections or lengthening an already lengthy rulemaking process, thereby depriving the public of needed health, safety, and environmental improvements.

The purpose of this report is to provide Congress with a broad overview of significant congressional and presidential regulatory reform efforts within the past 20 to 30 years. Those efforts have generally centered on one or more of the following themes or categories: (1) requirements that agencies use various forms of regulatory analysis (e.g., cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, and risk assessment) when developing regulations; (2) the development of presidential or congressional offices or procedures for the external review of agencies' rules; (3) the development of regulatory accounting statements reflecting the costs and benefits of all agencies' rules, possibly leading to the development of a regulatory budget; (4) efforts to encourage agencies to use alternatives to traditional "command and control" regulations, such as market incentives and performance standards; (5) the imposition of moratoriums on the development of new regulations, particularly at the change of presidential administrations; (6) "look back" reviews of agencies' existing rules to determine whether they should be revised or eliminated; (7) reforms focusing specifically on paperwork burden; (8) reforms focusing on small businesses and other small entities; (9) efforts to improve the quality of information used in rulemaking or disseminated to the public; (10) the use of information technology to improve public participation in rulemaking and regulatory transparency; and (11) other regulatory reform efforts (e.g., to ensure that agencies recognize the effects of their rules on federalism and private property rights). Some of these initiatives have been adopted, while others have not.

The report references numerous statutes and executive orders governing the federal rulemaking process. For a report describing those statutes and executive orders and the rulemaking process in general, see CRS Report RL32240, Federal Rulemaking Process: An Overview, by Curtis W. Copeland.

This report will be updated if significant changes to the federal regulatory process are proposed.