WASHINGTON — Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman
Fred Thompson (R-TN) and Senator John Breaux (D-LA) today
announced that the Senate Appropriations Committee has approved
the Treasury-Postal Appropriations bill with a provision to make
the Thompson-Breaux Regulatory Right-to-Know provision permanent.
The Thompson-Breaux provision would require the White House 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 Regulatory Right-to-Know provision is based on a
simple premise," Thompson said. "People have a right to
know how and why federal agencies make their most important and
expensive regulatory decisions.
"This is good government," Thompson added. "This
provision will help hold federal regulators accountable and reduce
needless waste and red tape. It will improve efforts to protect
public health, safety and the environment, and promote the
economic security and well-being of our families and communities.
I look forward to the report becoming a regular part of the
dialogue between the executive branch and Congress when we debate
the federal budget."
"We must work together to contribute to the success of
responsible government programs," Breaux said. "Now the
federal government will be held more accountable for how it spends
taxpayer dollars. And we, the members of Congress, and the
American people, will know, each year, the costs and benefits of
regulatory decisions and the real value of proposed federal
rules."
The Thompson-Breaux provision, which has been included as a
temporary measure in the Treasury-Postal Appropriations bill for
the last two years, builds on and strengthens the original
regulatory accounting provision sponsored by Senator Ted Stevens
(R-AK) in 1996 and in 1997. The Thompson-Breaux provision requires
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 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 and local government, small business,
and economic growth. It also requires OMB to issue agency
guidelines for accounting and to solicit public comment and expert
peer review to continually improve the quality of the report.
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