WASHINGTON - Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee Chairman Fred Thompson (R-TN), Senate Appropriations
Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK), and Senator John Breaux
(D-LA) today announced that the Senate late Friday 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
the Treasury-Postal Title (Section 624) of the Omnibus
Appropriations Act, 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 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 Chairman Stevens 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. 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."