Mike Levin: “today I am supporting Senate passage of S. 1198, a bill to provide a three year pilot program for GAO review of certain…”

“today I am supporting Senate passage of S. 1198, a bill to provide a three year pilot program for GAO review of certain agency rule makings. These are rule makings where the Chairman or Ranking Member of a committee of jurisdiction in the House or the Senate has requested such a review after the rule has been published as proposed. As first introduced and considered in the Governmental Affairs Committee, I was opposed to this bill. I was concerned that it created a two track rule making process, putting GAO in the shoes of the rule making agency and having GAO carry out its own interpretation of the public comments, scientific studies and economic analyses involved in the development of the rule. But through the work of Senator Thompson and Senator Lieberman, the bill has been reworked and refined to a point where it may provide the agencies, Congress and the public with helpful information in evaluating the work of a rule making in progress without jeopardizing the separate and distinct roles played by the Executive and Legislative branches in the regulatory process. As most of my colleagues know, I, along with Senator Thompson, have been fighting for years for a regulatory reform bill that would establish clear cost-benefit analysis standards for federal rule making agencies.”