Regulatory Review Commission + Regulatory Budget

Excessive regulatory accumulation has long been a concern of policymakers, and over the past 40 years, many presidents and members of Congress have taken steps to address this issue. Every recent president beginning with Carter issued or reaffirmed executive orders that set requirements for regulatory agencies in an attempt to avoid poorly designed and excessive regulations. Similarly, Congress began taking steps to address overregulation with the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, the Staggers Rail Act of 1980, and the Motor Carrier Act of 1980. Each of these attempts had a laudable goal, but none have had the effect of reducing and limiting the long-term accumulation of regulations.To reduce the burdens of regulations now and in the future, a proper regime must include both a drastic reduction of the regulatory bloat and a formal mechanism to limit the growth of the regulatory code. Together, these approaches would give Congress the information, incentives, and capacity to address existing costly regulations and regulatory accumulation more broadly, as well as improve future legislation and control the growth of new regulations.This policy brief describes the problems associated with regulatory accumulation, then briefly describes these two approaches and how Congress can use them together to take more control over the regulatory process and improve both legislation and regulation