Reform measure aims to shed more light on cost of regulations

The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) recently posted an article on its website about proposed reforms in how federal regulations are defined and put into effect.

Regulatory changes since 1994 have cost the country more than $1.9 trillion, the article said, and although “regulatory agencies are required to guess how much some of their proposed future regulations will cost people,” they often fail to notify the public of the real costs of updated and future regulations.

To change this, U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) has sponsored the Regulatory for our Economy Act (RREA), the article said. This act proposes a change in how regulations are unveiled to the public and put into effect. Instead of having agencies guess or estimate how much new regulations will cost citizens and the country, this measure seeks to “fix that basic transparency problem.”

The RREA will demand federal agencies use “alternative approaches” when deciding on and passing regulations, the article said. These approaches include “using plain language (and) comparing costs and benefits.”