Employer Association Cites CEI’s 10KC on the cost of workplace regulatory compliance

A new report on workplace regulation compliance by the National Association of Professional Employer Organizations cites CEI’s Ten Thousand Commandments. Of the businesses surveyed, a plurality supported Wayne Crews’s proposal to require Congress to vote on major regulations, which it now delegates to agencies.

Question 7: “Some critics of regulation want to require Congress to vote on all major regulations written by federal agencies, contending this would make legislators more responsible. Do you agree?”

Right now Congress passes a law and then requires the relevant federal agency to draw up and enforce the regulations. Some conservatives want Congress to make the agencies submit their regulations for approval, too, an approach critics say is cumbersome and completely unrealistic.

More than a third of the businesses in this survey agreed this idea has merit – 37 percent, or 158 companies. Another third, 30 percent, disagreed, while the remaining third, 33 percent, had no opinion.

The conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute says sunlight – disclosure – is one solution to proliferating regulations. “Regulations should be treated like federal spending,” writes Clyde Wayne Crews Jr., a vice president at the institute, in “Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State.” “Whenever possible, Congress should be held accountable for the compliance costs – as well as the benefits – of federal regulations. A way to maximize congressional accountability is to require Congress to vote on agency rules – in an expedited fashion – before they become binding.”

Adding another step to the regulatory process might not be the most practical way, Crews admits. Then how about at least requiring agencies to be far more open and specific about what their regulations actually cost?