Congress, not agencies, to blame for regulation delays
Just how bad is the current regulatory delay crisis? A new website from Public Citizen shows that proposed rules held up at the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs are delayed by more than 4,000 days. And that’s just the last stop along their journey from inception to finalization. A report last month from the R Street Institute, a libertarian think tank, paints an equally grim picture: Over the past 20 years, federal agencies have met only half the rule-making completion deadlines set by Congress…
…As the R Street Institute study made clear, out-of-control regulatory delays are a major concern across the political spectrum and require bipartisan solutions. Indeed, congressional Republicans joined with Democrats this spring in criticizing federal regulators for delays in finalizing new oil train safety standards while oil trains were derailing and exploding across the country.
