The Uneven Regulatory Burden

Jan 16

From: National Review Online

By Reihan Salam

Peter Suderman points us to a new report from the American Action Forum on the cost of the regulations imposed by the Obama administration:

In 2012, Cass Sunstein, Obama’s former Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs administrator touted another executive order intended to “eliminate unjustified regulatory costs and to reduce burdens” through international regulatory coordination.

Here’s what that looks like in practice: Last year, Sunstein’s office wiped $2.5 billion in regulations from agency books. And the administration added $236 billion in new regulations.

Sam Batkins summarizes one of the AAF report’s more disturbing findings:

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The Costs and Benefits of Regulatory Cost-Benefit Analysis

Jan 11

From: Compliance Week

Joseph McCafferty

The Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal agencies are between Scylla and Charybdis—the original rock and a hard place of Greek mythology—when it comes to performing required cost-benefit analyses for the Dodd-Frank Act rules they are in charge of writing.

Conduct too little analysis and the agencies leave themselves open to second-guessing by industry associations and corporate lobby groups, which can then challenge the rules on the basis of inadequate cost reviews and get them stricken from the books. That’s exactly what happened to the proxy access rule that ended up getting tossed aside after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others launched a legal challenge. (More on that and other challenges to rulemaking in a moment.)

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