[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 36 (Monday, February 27, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2229]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


            SUPPORT THE RISK ASSESSMENT AND COST-BENEFIT ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Norwood] is recognized 
during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NORWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Risk 
Assessment and Cost-Benefit Act. We must put an end to the overreaching 
bureaucrats whose choking regulations threaten American people every 
day. We must make the first rule of our regulatory system common sense. 
The bill will force Federal bureaucrats to use a little more common 
sense.
  The examples of Federal regulatory nonsense are too numerous for me 
to mention here. Some are painful and some are just plain absurd. A 
pair that come to mind include an OSHA rule that cost the dental 
industry over $2 billion but produced no measurable improvement in 
worker safety, or then there's OSHA's attempt to declare bricks a 
potentially poisonous substance--yes, bricks. I imagine it is only a 
matter of time before some bureaucratic genius issues an advisory that 
says, ``If Americans stopped driving their cars, there would be a lot 
fewer auto accidents.`'
  Mr. Speaker, the way to bring sensibility to Federal regulations is 
to apply risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis as in our bill. The 
EPA and the FDA's own estimates suggest that their new regulations cost 
the economy as much as $12 billion each year. Our bill will force these 
bureaucrats to prove that the cost is worth the benefit we receive from 
those regulations. It will force agencies to focus on the most 
dangerous risks to society. It will force regulators to look at the 
effectiveness of $10 million solutions versus $100 million solutions.
  Our opponents will argue that this legislation will roll back 
existing regulations. They will argue that this bill will endanger the 
safety of Americans. Mr. Speaker, the EPA Director, Carol Browner, went 
so far as to say, ``20 years of protection of our children, our air, 
our land, and our water are being rolled back in the dead of night.'' 
Nothing could be further from the truth. Mr. Speaker, EPA Director 
Browner's remarks only show how desperate Federal bureaucrats are to 
hold on to the coercive power they now have over American business and 
the American people.
  The main principle of our regulatory reform system must be common 
sense. The Risk Assessment and Cost-Benefit Act will force Federal 
bureaucrats to focus their regulatory efforts on what will benefit 
Americans the most. It will prevent Federal bureaucrats from forcing 
industries to spend millions, even billions of dollars without proving 
with good science the responsibility of that action. It will force 
Federal bureaucrats to give cost-effective solutions the same 
consideration and the same weight as the extravagant ideal solutions 
they pursue today.
  Mr. Speaker, it is past time that we recognize that our resources are 
not boundless. If we are to save ourselves from the debt that is 
crushing us every day, we must force Federal regulators to behave 
responsibly and ease the burden they place on our economy.


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