Congress Waits for Obama’s Final Regulatory Costs Report, Later Than Usual

The Daily Signal discusses the need for a regulatory budget with Wayne Crews. 

“The reason this matters to the general public is that we reliably know every February the budget of the federal government is available; whether we read it or not, we can see government outlays and revenue,” Wayne Crews, vice president for policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told The Daily Signal in a phone interview.

“The same should apply to regulation,” Crews said. “If the tax burden is visible, then everyone should see the hidden regulatory tax burden.”

The annual report—officially called “Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations and Unfunded Mandates on State, Local, and Tribal Entities”—is a legal requirement imposed on the executive branch as part of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 and buttressed by the Regulatory Right to Know Act in 2000.

“The president is vowing to use the pen and the phone in his remaining time. Without this report, there is a big gap in accountability,” Crews said, referring to Obama’s assertion that he would advance his agenda regardless of Congress.

The Obama administration’s 2015 report to Congress, covering fiscal year 2014 (October 2013 through September 2014), didn’t arrive until March of this year. The draft report didn’t arrive until October 2015, a record.

So it’s a near certainty the Obama administration’s final report, covering fiscal year 2015, will be released during the term of the next president.

And, Crews said, there might be little incentive for the administration to release the draft report to Congress before the presidential election Nov. 8.

Read the full article at The Daily Signal.