LATEST OMB REPORT ADDS FCC REGULATIONS TO COST-BENEFIT REVIEW LIST
Regulations ranging from Telecom Act competition rules to auction bidding processes were cited by White House Thurs. as potential impediments to economic growth. In Office of Management and Budget (OMB) annual report to Congress on “costs and benefits of regulations,” independent agencies such as FCC for first time were included.
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However, regulations cited by OMB’s Office of Information & Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) were provided to OMB by FCC, and Commission noted that as independent agency it wasn’t subject to Executive Order 12,866, which OMB is using to examine federal regulations. Executive Order, which calls for formal cost-benefit analyses to be performed on regulations, applies only to federal agencies, not independent ones such as FCC or FTC.
FCC regulations targeted by OMB for further review fell into several categories, including: (1) Rules promoting competitive networks in local telecom markets. (2) Competitive bidding procedures. (3) Installment payment financing for PCS licenses. (4) Collection of regulatory fees. (5) Narrowband PCS competitive bidding. (6) 24 GHz licensing and operation. (7) Extending wireless telecom to tribal lands.
OMB’s 163-page report didn’t specify exact regulations under those categories that could or should be reviewed, and unlike some of regulations listed for federal agencies, it also didn’t list costs or benefits of regulations. OMB said FCC declined to provide that information, saying Executive Order “is not applicable” to FCC, but independent agency did tell OMB that in preparing list of possible regulations for review it used cost-benefit analysis. FCC Assoc. Gen. Counsel Susan Steiman contributed comments to report, as did CTIA Senior Vp-Gen. Counsel Michael Altschul, SBC Assoc. Dir.-Federal Relations Roxanne Scott, Sen. Sarbanes (D-Md.) and Rep. Pastor (D-Ariz.).
FTC only had one potential regulatory category for review -- regulation of privacy of consumer financial information. Unlike FCC, FTC provided cost-benefit information on those rules, but numbers weren’t included in report. Report also called for review of privacy rules related to SEC, as well as revisions in SEC’s auditor independence requirements, despite recent passage of Sarbanes-Oxley Act to address accounting scandals.
“There are so many federal regulations now on the books that there has never been an accurate, up-to-date count of their exact number,” report said: “Since many of these rules are quite old, it is logical to suggest that existing rules be reviewed to determine whether they remain appropriate.” OIRA has been conducting annual review under Bush Administration, dating from its very first day (Jan. 20, 2001) when White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card issued so- called “Card memo” freezing many regulatory efforts in works. Since then, OMB reported, at least 281 of 371 rules frozen by Card have been permitted to go forward.
OIRA Administrator John Graham said recently that OMB “is not uniformly proregulation or antiregulation.” Rather, he told Washington Research Group in speech, OMB is staffing up on experts to “do a better job of distinguishing good rules from bad rules. And although our office is not always popular with agency regulators, we have demonstrated our determination to return to agencies rulemaking proposals that are not supported by quality data and analysis.”