Mike Levin: “the managers of the bill have accepted an amendment by Senator Stevens which would require the Office of Management and…”

“the managers of the bill have accepted an amendment by Senator Stevens which would require the Office of Management and Budget to submit, no later than September 30, 1997, a report to Congress that provides estimates of the total costs of Federal regulatory programs currently in place. I have agreed to support this amendment because of a number of changes Senator Stevens was willing to make to the amendment. As many of us know, there are several figures that are routinely used to decry the cost of regulation. Some reference a study that say regulation costs each of us $6,000 a year. Others reference studies that say the total cost of regulation is some $600 billion. These numbers are bandied about in an effort to drive home the message that regulation is expensive and to push for legislation to limit regulation. Senator Glenn recently had GAO look at one of these studies to determine whether it used appropriate and reasonable methods. The GAO analysis was critical of the private study and highlighted several points at which the assumptions used were inappropriate or highly questionable. Robert Hahn, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, issued a report earlier this year in which he attempted to ascertain whether Federal regulation results in net benefits. Mr. Hahn concluded that, taken in aggregate, the net benefits from Federal environmental, health and safety regulations from 1990-1995 are $280 billion.”