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 The Journal of Law, Economics, & Policy (JLEP)
Presented a Lecture entitled: "The Impact of Federal Regulation on the Economy and Small Business"This Event was held: March 29, 2006Lecture Series Event Summary
Susan Dudley, the head of the Regulatory Studies Program at the Mercatus center, moderated the discussion. The panelists included: John Graham, administrator of the White House Office of Regulatory Affairs (OIRA); Sally Katzen, former OIRA administrator under President Bill Clinton; Barry Pineles, counsel for the House Small Business Committee; and James Gattuso, a research fellow in regulatory policy at the Heritage Foundation. The panel’s lively debate touched on such topics as the cost of a regulation and how to calculate it, whether the federal government should make a significant effort to review old regulations, and the proper role of Congress in overseeing the promulgation of regulations. Graham stated that OIRA is neither for nor against regulation per se; rather its goal is to help agencies issue “smart regulations” that achieve a balance between a rule’s costs and benefits. Katzen challenged the accuracy of the assertion that federal regulations cost the American Economy $1.1 trillion a year, or $10,000 per household. She argued that this measurement may be distorted because it includes the costs of the paperwork burden imposed by the IRS and it fails to take into account the benefits that the public may derive from regulations. Pineles focused on the disparate impact of regulatory compliance on small and large businesses. Small businesses usually lack the cost savings derived from economies of scale and have smaller operating budgets over which they can spread the cost of compliance. Gattuso argued that it was appropriate to look at the cost of regulation in isolation from the benefits because the cost is an essential part of any formula intended to determine a regulation’s net benefit to society. He also asserted that the federal government should only interfere in the market place in the event of a market failure. Despite their diverging positions, all four panelists acknowledged the value of OIRA and the need for critical review of regulations before they become final. Click Here to return to the previous page  | |
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