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Regulatory Agencies Vs Independent Agencies

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For the first time in recent memory, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee this fall approved several bipartisan regulatory reform bills, setting the stage for serious consideration of reform in the New Year. Two of the bills address a key gap in the federal regulatory process by encouraging "independent" regulatory agencies that aren't part of the executive branch to conduct more thorough economic analysis before issuing regulations. Numerous independent agencies can impose restrictions on prices, entry into markets, disclosures or contract terms. Yet agencies often conduct little or no economic analysis to identify the need for, or effects of, restrictions before they're adopted. So agencies can impose massive mandates …show more content…

Such sweeping regulation ought to be accompanied by evidence that it's necessary to address a significant, ongoing, widespread problem, but the FCC isn't obligated to produce such evidence. One bill, the Independent Agency Regulatory Analysis Act, gives the president authority to require the same economic analysis from independent agencies that every president since Ronald Reagan required from executive branch agencies. This approach could improve independent agencies' analysis, as several studies show that executive branch agencies tend to produce more complete analysis than independent agencies. This approach may be limited, however, because the enforcement mechanism is weak. Presidents require economic analysis through executive orders. The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs can enforce these requirements by blocking regulations accompanied by shoddy analysis. The proposed legislation wouldn't give the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs the power to block independent agencies' regulations. It could only submit its objections to the agency and hope that the threat of public embarrassment would motivate better …show more content…

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