II

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 13

To institute accountability in the Federal regulatory process, establish a

program for the systematic selection of regulatory priorities, and for

other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JANUARY 21 (legislative day, JANUARY 5), 1993

Mr. HATCH introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred

to the Committee on Governmental Affairs

A BILL

To institute accountability in the Federal regulatory process,

establish a program for the systematic selection of regulatory priorities, and for other purposes.

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

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Regulatory Account5 ability Act of 1993’’.

6 SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS AND STATEMENT OF

7 PURPOSE.

8 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds and declares

9 that—
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1 (1) the overall cost of Federal regulation in the

2 United States has risen to well over

3 $400,000,000,000 per year;

4 (2) this regulatory burden is paid by individual

5 citizens and their families in the form of a ‘‘hidden

6 tax’’ because intermediaries have no options that do

7 not pass these expenditures to individuals;

8 (3) the most recent data reveals that the ‘‘hid9 den tax’’ paid by the citizens of this Nation now ex10 ceeds $4,100 annually for each household;

11 (4) left unchecked, this ‘‘hidden tax’’ will in12 crease by 50 percent between now and the year

13 2000; and

14 (5) it is in the best interests of the American

15 people to have the Federal Government devise a sys16 tematic way to account for the new regulatory costs

17 that taxpayers are forced to absorb and to have this

18 financial burden better controlled.

19 (b) PURPOSE.—It is the purpose of this Act to estab20 lish that each agency shall, as a mandatory requirement

21 for the issuance of—

22 (1) any proposed regulation—

23 (A) thoroughly assess and document the

24 anticipated benefits, reasonable alternative ap-
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1 proaches, and all foreseeable compliance costs

2 of each approach; and

3 (B) assess, and include in all proposed reg4 ulatory actions, a range of possible offsets for

5 the costs; and

6 (2) any final regulation—

7 (A) have selected the most cost-effective al8 ternative; and

9 (B) for a period of 3 years following enact10 ment, have fully offset all foreseeable costs

11 through revocation or revision of one or more

12 existing regulations.

13 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

14 For purposes of this Act—

15 (1) the term ‘‘agency’’ has the same meaning

16 given such term in section 3502(1) of title 44, Unit17 ed States Code, excluding those agencies specified in

18 section 3502(10) of title 44, United States Code;

19 and

20 (2) the term ‘‘regulation’’ or ‘‘rule’’ means any

21 agency statement of general applicability and future

22 effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe

23 law or policy or describing the procedure or practice

24 requirements of an agency, but does not include—
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1 (A) administrative actions governed by the

2 provisions of sections 556 and 557 of title 5,

3 United States Code;

4 (B) regulations issued with respect to a

5 military or foreign affairs function of the

6 United States; or

7 (C) regulations related to agency organiza8 tion, management, or personnel.

9 SEC. 4. MANDATORY REQUIREMENT FOR THE ISSUANCE OF

10 NEW REGULATION.

11 In taking any regulatory action, each agency shall

12 strictly adhere to the following requirements:

13 (1) Administrative regulatory decisions shall be

14 based on substantial evidence on the public record

15 documenting—

16 (A) the ability of an action to result in spe17 cific, reasonably anticipated benefits;

18 (B) all alternative regulatory approaches,

19 including performance-based approaches, that

20 will result in the benefits documented under

21 subparagraph (A); and

22 (C) all foreseeable costs that can reason23 ably be expected to flow, directly or incidentally,

24 from each approach documented under subpara25 graph (B).
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1 (2) No final regulatory actions may be taken

2 unless the specific benefits resulting from a specific

3 regulatory approach documented under paragraph

4 (1) clearly outweigh the costs documented under

5 paragraph (1).

6 (3) Agencies shall—

7 (A) for all proposed new regulatory actions

8 that will generate any cost, propose a range of

9 position revisions to, or revocation of, one or

10 more exciting regulations, that can reasonably

11 be expected to fully offset the reasonably antici12 pated costs of such proposed regulatory action;

13 and

14 (B) fully offset the costs documented

15 under paragraph (1) through revision to, or rev16 ocation of, existing Federal regulation.

17 SEC. 5. EXEMPTION.

18 The requirements of section 4(3) shall not apply in

19 the case of regulatory actions for which the President in20 cludes in the Federal Register, accompanying the regu21 latory action, a statement of waiver that fully outlines the

22 reasons and needs for waiving the requirements of section

23 4(3) because of emergency need for such specific regu24 latory action and includes a timetable for satisfying the
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1 requirements of section 4 at the earliest possible date

2 thereafter.

3 SEC. 6. INDEPENDENT EVALUATION.

4 (a) IN GENERAL.—Three years following the date of

5 enactment of this Act, the President shall provide for inde6 pendent evaluation of the regulatory process and the effect

7 of regulations on the different areas of the economy, in8 cluding—

9 (1) business startups and viability;

10 (2) employment, including job creation, com11 pensation, and employment of foreign nationals by

12 United States firms;

13 (3) international trade and competitiveness with

14 foreign entities;

15 (4) research and development;

16 (5) impact on State and local governments; and

17 (6) direct Federal spending for enforcement of

18 regulations.

19 (b) STUDY FOCUS.—The evaluation required by this

20 section shall also include a study of—

21 (1) the effect of the regulatory cost cap imposed

22 by this Act;

23 (2) the methodologies used by regulatory agen24 cies to estimate the cost of a rule or regulation; and
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1 (3) the use of alternative regulatory approaches

2 described in section 4(1)(B).

3 (c) OMB.—The Office of Management and Budget

4 shall carry out the provisions of this section.

5 (d) FUNDING.—Notwithstanding section 1346 of title

6 31, United States Code, the President is authorized to

7 transfer up to $50,000 from the funds available to any

8 agency for administrative purposes to the Office of Man9 agement and Budget for the purpose of carrying out this

10 section.

11 SEC. 7. EFFECTIVE DATE; SUNSET PROVISION.

12 (a) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The provisions of this Act

13 shall take effect upon the date of enactment of this Act,

14 except that the effective date for regulations or rules pro15 mulgated pursuant to a law enacted after the date that

16 is 2 years before the date of enactment of this Act and

17 not later than the date of enactment of this Act shall be

18 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act.

19 (b) SUNSET.—The requirements of section 4(3) shall

20 cease to have effect on the date that is 3 years following

21 the date of enactment of this Act.

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