DeLay doubts claims on regulatory reform - House Majority Whip Tom DeLay doubts that real regulatory reform has been brought about by the efforts of the Clinton administration - Brief Article

Nation's Business, Dec, 1995 by David Warner

Regulatory officials in the Clinton administration say they have scrapped 16,000 pages of regulations and are reworking an additional 31,000 pages of other rules to make them less burdensome. But House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and other regulation hawks in Congress are dubious of these assertions, made in Common Sense Government, the administration's latest report on its efforts to "reinvent" government.

To the contrary, says DeLay, "regulators have been emboldened by this administration." In a meeting with Nation's Business editors, DeLay pointed to increases in the budgets of regulatory agencies and to thousands of additional pages in the Federal Register, a weekday government publication in which all proposed and final regulations are printed. (See the accompanying chart.) "Clearly," said DeLay, "we need drastic change" to bring about real regulatory reform.

That's why GOP lawmakers in both houses are continuing to push for comprehensive legislation to overhaul the regulatory process. Although the fight is essentially over for this year, DeLay said, reformers will be pressing the issue again in early 1996.

DeLay said he is working to raise money for Project Relief, a private-sector regulatory-reform group he helped found in 1994. The group, which includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, plans to use the funds in a stepped-up drive for regulatory reform in Congress early next year, DeLay said. Project Relief will push for enactment of legislation that is similar to a bill the House approved in March and to a pending Senate measure.

The House bill included a provision to reauthorize and strengthen the Regulatory Flexibility Act, which requires federal agencies to examine a proposed rule's effect on small business and to rewrite the regulation if it would have a significant adverse impact.

The House reform measure also included a requirement that agencies assess the merits of health, safety, and environmental rules costing $25 million or more per year relative to the risks of not adopting such rules. Another provision would require regulators to conduct cost-benefit analyses of all rules with expected economic impacts of $25 million or more.

The Senate version would apply to most regulations costing $100 million or more a year. Three times in late July, proponents of the measure were unable to muster the 60 votes necessary to cut off a filibuster and force a final vote.

--David Warner