WASHINGTON - Senate Governmental Affairs Committee
Chairman Fred Thompson (R-TN), Senate Appropriations Committee
Chairman Ted Stevens, (R-AK), and Senator John Breaux (D-LA)
announced that the Senate yesterday approved the
Thompson-Stevens-Breaux Regulatory Right-to-Know Act. The Act will
require the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
to disclose to the public the costs and benefits of regulatory
programs in a report to be included each year in the Federal
Budget. The legislation is contained in Section 624 of the
Treasury-Postal Appropriations conference report, which now goes
to the President for his signature.
"The Regulatory Right-to-Know Act is based on
a simple but important idea," Chairman Thompson said.
"People have a right to know the costs and benefits of
important regulatory decisions. This will help the Congress, the
President, and the public better understand whether regulations
are sensible and fair."
Senator Stevens, chairman of the Senate
Appropriations Committee, said, "This is an important tool
for decision-makers. It will give Congress the ability to perform
its oversight function in a more efficient and effective manner.
In order to make sound decisions, Congress must have access to how
and why agencies make decisions, and what the consequences of
those decisions would be."
"Government has an obligation to carefully
consider mandates that impose costs on people and limit their
freedom," Senator Breaux said. "Now we members of
Congress and the American people will know, each year, the real
value of proposed Federal regulations."
The Thompson-Stevens-Breaux legislation, which has
been included in the Treasury-Postal Appropriations bill as a
one-year reporting requirement for the last two years, strengthens
and makes permanent the original regulatory accounting provision
secured by Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) in 1996. The Regulatory
Right-to-Know Act requires the OMB director to provide Congress
with a report on the total annual benefits and costs of Federal
regulatory programs, as well as an analysis of the impacts of
federal regulation on State, local, and tribal government, small
business, wages, and economic growth. It also requires OMB to
issue agency guidelines and to solicit public comment and expert
peer review to continually improve the quality of the reports.
"This is about good government," Thompson said.
"This legislation will help hold Federal agencies accountable
for the cost and effectiveness of their regulations and reduce
needless waste and red tape. It will promote responsible efforts
to protect public health, safety and the environment, and it will
promote the economic security and well-being of our families and
communities. I am pleased that the costs and benefits of
regulation can now receive the attention of the Executive Branch
and Congress when we debate the Federal Budget each year."