Pete Domenici: “Mr. President, the Federal regulatory process, from everything we can determine from our constituents and in various and…”

“Mr. President, the Federal regulatory process, from everything we can determine from our constituents and in various and sundry meetings across this land and in our States, is simply out of control. Federal regulations affect in a very real way every man, woman, and child in America. The cost of Federal regulations, however, has been estimated to be as high as a half trillion dollars a year, $500 billion. Even the most conservative estimates of the cost of Federal regulations show that the cost of regulations has a profound impact on American citizens. A recent Washington Post article reported that regulations ultimately cost the average American household about $2,000 a year. I believe one of the main reasons these regulations cost Americans so much is that often they are not generated in an efficient and commonsense manner. That does not mean we do not need regulations, but we need efficient and commonsense regulations. The sheer volume of regulations proposed and finalized by Federal agencies every year is staggering. For example, the registry, that is, the Federal Register, in 1994 alone runs a total of 68,107 pages.”