[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 106 (Friday, July 31, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1501-E1502]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         H.R. 4162--THE REGULATORY INFORMATION PRESENTATION ACT

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                          HON. HELEN CHENOWETH

                                of idaho

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 31, 1998

  Mrs. CHENOWETH. Mr. Speaker, on June 25, 1998, I introduced H.R. 
4162, a bill that will assist the American public, small business and 
anyone else interested in understanding how a decision was reached by 
the federal government when publishing regulations. My bill, entitled 
the ``Regulatory Information Presentation Act,'' is presented to the 
Congress for comments and to bring the issue for debate.
  In May of this year, the GAO released a report that points to the 
need for this legislation. The report, entitled ``Regulatory Reform 
Agencies Could Improve Development, Documentation, and Clarity of 
Regulatory Economic Analyses,'' should be read by all of my colleagues.
  Currently, the Administrative Procedure Act, provides only that a 
notice of proposed rulemaking must include the legal authority for a 
rule and ``either the terms or substance of the proposed rule and/or 
description of the subjects and issues involved.'' The provisions for 
final rule are even more general: They must ``incorporate * * * a 
concise general statement of their basis and purpose.''
  The above APA provisions were adopted in 1966. Since then, there has 
been a demand for more rigorous analysis of proposed rules and 
increased ``transparency'' in the rulemaking process. In addition, 
since 1981, several Presidents have uniformly required OMB and the 
Federal agencies to address certain analytical issues in rulemakings, 
and particularly in major regulatory actions. The current Executive 
Order is E.O., 12866, which was signed by President Clinton in 
September 1993. The previous Executive Order 12291, was signed by 
President Reagan in February

[[Page E1502]]

1981. During this time, it has become routine for agencies to address 
the issues covered in those Executive Orders; however, the public 
rulemaking notices published in the Federal Register often do not 
reflect clearly the agency's rationale for the rulemaking action, and 
the agency discussions of proposed and final rules, contained in the 
Federal Register ``Preamble'' to the substance of the rule, are highly 
inconsistent in format and depth of information, making it difficult 
for the public to understand the basis for the rule and how particular 
issues were addressed. Often, such information might exist, but it is 
not summarized in the Federal Register notice, but is contained in an 
agency docket or other files, where it is generally inaccessible to all 
but the most knowledgeable and Washington-based individuals. In other 
words, the current rulemaking information presentation system is not 
``user-friendly'' for the public.
  The proposed bill would address this matter by requiring the Office 
of the Federal Register to establish a uniform format for Federal 
agency rulemaking that would make clear how an agency addressed certain 
issues that are commonly addressed in rulemaking and which are covered 
in the regulatory Executive Order. If a particular issue was not 
relevant for an individual rulemaking, presumably the agency would 
simply put ``not applicable'' under that subject heading in the Federal 
Register notice.
  This should not make more work for agencies; in fact, it should 
reduce effort for all concerned, particularly our citizens.
  One provision would call for some additional effort, but it would be 
minimal. The ``Public Notice'' section of the proposed legislation 
(Sec. 4) would establish certain reporting requirements for agencies 
regarding number of rules promulgated and reviewed by OMB each year. 
The purpose of this is to allow Congress to track the level of 
regulatory activity from year to year.
  I urge my colleagues and the American public to support this 
legislation.

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