I

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. R. 3277

To ensure congressional approval of the amount of compliance costs imposed

on the private sector by regulations issued under new or reauthorized

Federal laws.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APRIL 18, 1996

Mr. SMITH of Texas (for himself, Mr. CONDIT, Mr. DELAY, Mr. CLINGER,

Mr. MCINTOSH, Mr. PETE GEREN of Texas, Mr. HASTERT, Mr. PETERSON of Minnesota, Mr. MILLER of Florida, Mr. WICKER, Mr. STOCKMAN,

Mr. HERGER, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. FUNDERBURK, Mr. WELLER, Mr.

COBLE, Mr. PARKER, Mrs. CHENOWETH, Mr. BUNNING of Kentucky, Mr.

LAUGHLIN, Mr. LEWIS of Kentucky, Mr. LARGENT, Mr. EMERSON, Mr.

DEAL of Georgia, Mr. NORWOOD, Mr. THORNBERRY, Mr. DUNCAN, Mr.

HOSTETTLER, Mr. GUTKNECHT, Mr. COBURN, Mr. COOLEY of Oregon,

Mr. FIELDS of Texas, Mr. GEKAS, Mr. BARTON of Texas, Mr. COMBEST,

Mr. ARCHER, Mr. TAUZIN, and Mr. DAVIS) introduced the following bill;

which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, and in addition to the Committee on Rules, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of

such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL

To ensure congressional approval of the amount of compliance costs imposed on the private sector by regulations

issued under new or reauthorized Federal laws.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Regulatory Account3 ability Act of 1996’’.

4 SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY: REQUIREMENT

5 FOR CONGRESS TO APPROVE REGULATORY

6 COSTS THAT MAY BE IMPOSED UNDER NEW

7 AND REAUTHORIZED FEDERAL REGULATORY

8 LAWS.

9 (a) DEFINITIONS.—Section 421 of the Congressional

10 Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C.

11 658) is amended—

12 (1) in paragraph (7) (relating to the definition

13 of the term ‘‘Federal private sector mandate’’) by in14 serting ‘‘a controlled Federal private sector mandate

15 described in paragraph (14)(B) or a’’ after

16 ‘‘means’’; and

17 (2) by adding at the end the following new

18 paragraphs:

19 ‘‘(14) CONTROLLED FEDERAL PRIVATE SECTOR

20 MANDATE.—The term ‘controlled Federal private

21 sector mandate’ means—

22 ‘‘(A) a Federal private sector mandate that

23 will result in costs for the private sector of

24 $100,000,000 or more; or

25 ‘‘(B) a provision in legislation, that author26 izes appropriations to implement or enforce a
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1 Federal private sector mandate under an exist2 ing Federal law that will result in the imposi3 tion on the private sector, after the first date

4 for which appropriations are authorized under

5 the provision, of $100,000,000 or more in costs.

6 ‘‘(15) CONTROLLED PRIVATE REGULATORY

7 LEGISLATION.—The term ‘controlled private regu8 latory legislation’ means a bill, joint resolution,

9 amendment, motion, or conference report that con10 tains a controlled Federal private sector mandate.

11 ‘‘(16) REGULATORY COST AUTHORIZATION.—

12 The term ‘regulatory cost authorization’ means a

13 statement of a dollar amount of costs incurred by

14 the private sector that are authorized to result from

15 regulations that—

16 ‘‘(A) implement or enforce a controlled

17 Federal private sector mandate, in the case of

18 a controlled Federal private sector mandate de19 scribed in paragraph (14)(A); or

20 ‘‘(B) implement or enforce a Federal pri21 vate sector mandate with respect to which ap22 propriations are authorized by a controlled Fed23 eral private sector mandate described in para24 graph (14)(B).
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1 ‘‘(17) COSTS.—In paragraphs (14) and (16) of

2 this section and section 424(b)(4) only, the term

3 ‘costs’ means the reasonably quantifiable costs, in4 cluding social, environmental, and economic, that are

5 expected to result directly or indirectly from imple6 mentation of, or compliance with, a rule or an alter7 native to a rule.’’.

8 (b) REQUIREMENT FOR REGULATORY COST AU9 THORIZATION.—Section 425(a) of the Congressional

10 Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C.

11 658d(a)) is amended—

12 (1) in paragraph (1) by striking ‘‘and’’ after

13 the semicolon at the end;

14 (2) in paragraph (2) by striking the period at

15 the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and

16 (3) by adding at the end the following new

17 paragraph:

18 ‘‘(3) any controlled private regulatory legisla19 tion, unless the legislation specifies a regulatory cost

20 authorization—

21 ‘‘(A) in the case of a controlled Federal

22 private sector mandate described in section

23 421(14)(A), for each controlled Federal private

24 sector mandate contained in the legislation; and
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1 ‘‘(B) in the case of a controlled Federal

2 private sector mandate described in section

3 421(14)(B), for each Federal private sector

4 mandate with respect to which appropriations

5 are authorized by the controlled Federal private

6 sector mandate.’’.

7 (c) REQUIREMENT FOR CBO SCORING OF COSTS OF

8 CONTROLLED FEDERAL PRIVATE SECTOR MANDATES.—

9 Section 424(b) of the Congressional Budget and Impound10 ment Control Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 658c(b)) is amended

11 by adding at the end the following new paragraph:

12 ‘‘(4) CONTROLLED FEDERAL PRIVATE SECTOR

13 MANDATES.—In addition to the other information

14 required by this subsection, the Director shall pre15 pare and include in the statement—

16 ‘‘(A) an identification of each controlled

17 Federal private sector mandate in the bill or

18 joint resolution; and

19 ‘‘(B) for each controlled Federal private

20 sector mandate identified under subparagraph

21 (A)—

22 ‘‘(i) in the case of a controlled Federal

23 private sector mandate described in section

24 421(14)(A), an estimate of the costs that

25 will be incurred by the private sector under
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1 the controlled Federal private sector man2 date; or

3 ‘‘(ii) in the case of a controlled Fed4 eral private sector mandate described in

5 section 421(14)(B), an estimate of the

6 costs that will be incurred by the private

7 sector, after the first date for which appro8 priations are authorized under the man9 date, to comply with each Federal private

10 sector mandate with respect to which ap11 propriations are authorized by the con12 trolled Federal private sector mandate.’’.

13 SEC. 3. RESTRICTION ON PRIVATE REGULATORY COSTS EX14 CEEDING CONGRESSIONAL AUTHORIZATION.

15 (a) RULES EXCEEDING REGULATORY COST AUTHOR16 IZATION NOT EFFECTIVE.—Notwithstanding any other

17 provision of law, and except as provided in subsection

18 (d)—

19 (1) the total amount of costs that are required

20 to be incurred by the private sector to comply with

21 covered regulations issued under a covered law may

22 not exceed the regulatory cost authorization for that

23 covered law; and

24 (2) a proposed covered regulation shall not take

25 effect unless the Director has published in the Fed-
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1 eral Register a certification under this section that

2 implementation of the regulation will not violate

3 paragraph (1).

4 (b) SCORING OF COVERED REGULATIONS BY

5 OMB.—

6 (1) SUBMISSION REQUIREMENT.—Before issu7 ing a final covered regulation, the head of an agency

8 shall submit the proposed covered regulation to the

9 Director with a request that the Director certify

10 under this section that implementation of the regula11 tion will not violate subsection (a)(1).

12 (2) ISSUANCE OR DENIAL OF CERTIFICATION.—

13 Not later than 90 days after receiving a request for

14 certification under paragraph (1) for a proposed cov15 ered regulation, the Director shall—

16 (A) after publication of notice and an op17 portunity for public comment, estimate the

18 costs that would be incurred by the private sec19 tor in complying with the regulation;

20 (B) determine whether implementation of

21 the regulation would violate subsection (a)(1);

22 and

23 (C) publish in the Federal Register the es24 timate under subparagraph (A) and—
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1 (i) a certification that implementation

2 of the regulation will not violate subsection

3 (a)(1); or

4 (ii) a finding that implementation of

5 the regulation would violate subsection

6 (a)(1).

7 (c) MAINTENANCE OF RECORD OF AGGREGATE

8 COSTS OF COVERED REGULATIONS.—The Director shall

9 maintain and make publicly available for each covered law

10 an estimate of the costs required to be incurred by the

11 private sector to comply with each covered regulation in

12 effect under the covered law.

13 (d) EMERGENCY EXCEPTION.—Subsection (a) shall

14 not apply to a regulation for which the President issues

15 a written finding that the regulation is necessary because

16 of an emergency.

17 (e) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

18 (1) COVERED LAW.—The term ‘‘covered law’’

19 means a provision of law that—

20 (A) is a controlled Federal private sector

21 mandate under section 421(14)(A) of the Con22 gressional Budget and Impoundment Control

23 Act of 1974, as amended by section 2 of this

24 Act; or
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1 (B) is a Federal private sector mandate

2 that may be implemented or enforced using

3 amounts appropriated under the authority of a

4 provision which, when considered by Congress

5 as legislation, was a controlled Federal private

6 sector mandate under section 421(14)(B) of

7 that Act.

8 (2) COVERED REGULATION.—The term ‘‘cov9 ered regulation’’ means a regulation issued under

10 the authority of a covered law after the date of the

11 enactment of this Act.

12 (3) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means

13 the Director of the Office of Management and

14 Budget.

15 (4) REGULATORY COST AUTHORIZATION.—(A)

16 Subject to subparagraph (B), the term ‘‘regulatory

17 cost authorization’’ has the meaning given that term

18 is section 421 of the Congressional Budget and Im19 poundment Control Act of 1974, as amended by sec20 tion 2 of this Act.

21 (B) In the case of a covered law for which there

22 is not a regulatory cost authorization as defined in

23 that section, the regulatory cost authorization for

24 the covered law is deemed to be zero.
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1 (5) MISCELLANEOUS TERMS.—Each of the

2 terms ‘‘costs’’, ‘‘Federal private sector mandate’’,

3 and ‘‘private sector’’ has the meaning given that

4 term in section 421 of the Congressional Budget and

5 Impoundment Control Act of 1974, as amended by

6 section 2 of this Act.

7 SEC. 4. EFFECTIVE DATE.

8 This Act shall take effect on January 4, 1997.

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