Eleanor Holmes Norton: “I thank my good friend from the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) for yielding to me. I had to come down as I saw this…”

“I thank my good friend from the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) for yielding to me. I had to come down as I saw this attempt to use our jurisdiction to undermine our independent agencies. And I want to put an emphasis on independent agencies because they have always been treated differently. {time} 1630 Executive Order 12866 has long subjected agency rulemakings to some review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, but independent agencies have been treated differently. Congress deliberately created them as independent to exempt them from political review for their regulatory actions by the White House. The agencies we are talking about are very often agencies that deal with our economy. They are almost always agencies whose subject matter is controversial, like the National Labor Relations Board, which deals with labor management matters, or the FTC, whose role is to prevent anticompetitive business practices, not to mention the Fed. Now, the executive order provides OIRA with the ability to do cost- benefit analysis ``unless prohibited by law.'' Those words are our - congressional words, ``unless prohibited by law.'' Now, that language is not in this executive order. Does it mean that it is erased so that, with respect to environment and public safety rules for example, ``prohibited by law'' no longer obtains and cost benefit can be done so that you can weigh the cost or the benefit of rules?…”