Where Is the Unified Agenda?

The federal government is supposed to publish the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions twice a year. This document provides a rundown of all the various regulatory (and deregulatory) actions that are in various stages of the regulatory pipeline. In this way, the agenda provides an overview of the federal government’s regulatory activities, and alerts readers to regulatory actions that could be coming down the pipe. The agenda is supposed to be released in the spring and fall, though it often comes out late. This year, however, neither spring nor fall edition has been released. Nor has the federal government published the final version of its report on the costs and benefits of federal regulations. The draft was released in March. Wayne Crews comments:

These delays matter because the president promised to slim the regulatory waistline and has issued specific executive orders in the process. Expediting the data that would ease outside assessments would seem an obvious must-do.

It is true Bush issued more overall rules (coming off the Clinton era) over the past three years as the president likes to claim; but Obama issued more of the high-dollar “economically significant” variety  the Unified Agenda highlights. It’d be nice to have the figures and plans for 2012. . . .

Accountability for regulations matters, and disclosure is a prerequisite.

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