White House will provide Boehner with list of most expensive regulations

The Obama administration on Friday said it will comply with Speaker John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) request for a list of planned regulations that would cost more than $1 billion to implement.

Boehner wrote to Obama on Friday requesting more information about upcoming regulations by the time Congress returns from recess. He noted that he had asked for similar data in the past but had not received it. 

Meg Reilly, a spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget, said the White House would provide Boehner with the information he requested.

“A refusal by the administration to disclose proposed regulations that would have an economic cost of more than $1 billion would send a terrible signal to already unnerved job creators in America,” said Kevin Smith, a spokesman for Boehner. “We look forward to receiving that information before Congress returns.”

But the White House also said the charge from Republicans that President Obama has massively increased federal red tape is false.

OMB regulations chief Cass Sunstein wrote in a blog post that “there has been no significant increase in rulemaking under this Administration.”

House Republicans intend to try to block expensive regulations in an attempt to boost the economy, and are warning of a tsunami of rules they say will choke off growth. GOP lawmakers have been ridiculing a White House effort to eliminate duplicate existing rules, an effort that is estimated to save at least $10 billion. Democrats say the savings is significant and argue the GOP is just using the economy as a pretext to gut crucial environmental and safety protections.

Sunstein said fewer regulations were instituted during the first two years of Obama’s presidency than during the last two years of George W. Bush’s. 

Those Bush regulations were also more costly, Sunstein argued. According to OBM, the last two years of Bush regulations cost $22 billion to implement, while the first two years of Obama regulations cost $14 billion.

On the other hand, the net benefits — factoring lives saved and illnesses avoided — of the regulations in the first two Obama years are 10 times greater than those of the regulations Bush put in place during his first two years, Sunstein said. According to OMB, the first two years of Obama regulations had net benefits of $35 billion.

Boehner is requesting details on the 219 regulations proposed so far this year that OMB has judged could cost more than $100 million. Sunstein said it is important to remember that many regulations do not become final and are only in the discussion phase.

Boehner has signaled that the House in September will take up the REINS Act, a bill that would require Congress to review and approve economically significant rules.

— Updated at 5:55 p.m.

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