20 Years of Regulatory Reform

Executive Order 12044
"Improving Government Regulations"

Issued by President Carter, the order instructed agencies to consider costs and benefits when developing major rules and to review existing rules periodically to ensure continued relevance.

1980

Paperwork Reduction Act

Created the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within the Office of Management and Budget to help reduce and simplify federal information requests.

1980

Regulatory Flexibility Act

Ordered agencies to assess the economic impact of rules on small businesses and local government. The law also required agencies to publish semiannual plans to periodically review regulations having a "significant economic impact upon a substantial number of small entities."

1981

Executive Order 12291
"Federal Regulation"

With this order, President Reagan required agencies to do "regulatory impact analysis" for rules, noting costs, benefits and alternative regulatory approaches. The order also gave OMB the power to review all proposed and final rules for "consistency with administration policies."

1993

National Performance Review

Through this reinventing government initiative, President Clinton ordered agencies to work openly and cooperatively with the regulated community-through such means as stakeholder meetings and negotiated rule-making-to find the best regulatory solutions.

1993

Executive Order 12866
"Regulatory Planning and Review"

President Clinton ordered agencies to develop rules according to 12 principles of regulation. For all major rules, agencies must show that benefits justify costs.

1995

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act

Required agencies to show expected costs and benefits (qualitative and quantitative) for all rules imposing a federal mandate that would cost state, local and tribal governments collectively or the private sector $100 million a year. Congress must supply money or taxes if the mandate is for state, local and tribal governments.

1995

Paperwork Reduction Act

Amended the 1980 Act by extending requirements to educational and nonprofit institutions, federal contractors and tribal governments. The law also required each agency to create a process to evaluate proposed information collection requests and to reduce information collection burdens on the public.

1995

Executive Memorandum

President Clinton ordered all agencies to do a page-by-page review of existing regulations, eliminating obsolete or redundant ones. He committed to reduce 16,000 pages from the 140,000-page Code of Federal Regulations and modify 31,000 pages through legislative or administrative means.

1996

Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act

Ordered the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency to consult small business representatives when developing rules likely to impact them. The law also created 10 regional complaint boards.

1996

Congressional Review Act

Required agencies to send major final rules to Congress for review. Within 60 legislative days, Congress may pass a resolution nullifying a rule. The President has veto authority over any resolution.

1998

Regulatory Improvement Act (proposed-S 981)

Would require agencies to conduct risk and cost-benefit studies on major proposed and final rules and to submit those analyses to independent peer reviewers. Agencies would have to include an executive summary of the analyses with the final rule so the public could understand its purpose.