Why Is Obama’s Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulation Delayed?

In April 2013, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued its Draft 2013 Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations, which covered rules and regs issued in fiscal year 2012. The final 2013 edition never appeared; now, the Draft 2014 edition is due. I’m not holding my breath.

President Obama claimed again as recently as February 2013 that “this is the most transparent administration in history.”

But getting this important document, as well as the oft-delayed Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, is like pulling teeth. Part of the recent House-passed ALERRT Act addressed the Agenda’s tardiness; it’s naturally stuck in the Senate. (The Agenda is an obscure but important document wherein federal departments and agencies reveal their priorities along with disclosing recently completed rules.)

The 2013 Draft Report revealed that costs of major rules jumped under Obama; The 14 rules added during the fiscal year ended September 2012 imposed costs of from $14.8 billion to $19.5 billion (that’s in the 2001 dollars OMB uses, which look better than 2012 dollars).

The OMB breakdown incorporates only benefits and costs of a handful of major rules which the OMB or agencies have expressed in quantitative and monetary terms. It omits numerous categories and cost levels of rules altogether, and rules from independent agencies are entirely absent.

OK, that’s worrisome, but normally, final reports look fairly identical to draft reports, so the reluctance to release it is unclear. We presumably already have the “bad news.” In any event, normally by April OMB has issued the year’s Draft Report, as can be seen in the list below. There were two big exceptions: one during Obama’s first year, one during George W. Bush’s last.

April is upon us, and without the final 2013 report, it’s not looking likely that the Draft 2014 we need to see is imminent. Regarding final reports, they always appeared by year-end up through 2005. Since then, apart from 2010 and 2011, a given year’s report hasn’t appeared until the following year. But they have only been this late twice (in 2012 under Obama, and in 2007 under Bush). Even when final reports were delayed into the subsequent year, we usually had them by January.

It should be adequate that regulation is allowed to grow without much restraint; the lack of timely disclosure of the relative handful of rules that get scrutiny in the only formal report on regulatory costs is too much.

Here is a list of Draft and Final reports’ dates of appearance since 2002.