OMB has issued a draft of its latest cost/benefit analysis on federal regulations, estimating the annual benefits of major federal regulations reviewed by OMB over the 10 years ending last September range from $122 billion to $656 billion, while the estimated annual costs range from $46 billion to $54 billion.
It asserts that the average annual benefits of the regulations issued during the Bush administration to that point is 138 percent greater than the average annual benefits during the Clinton administration and that the average annual costs of the regulations from the Bush administration are about a quarter below the average annual costs over the previous 20 years.
The report also includes a summary of major regulatory activity of independent agencies over the last 10 years and updates on other regulation-related issues. The report is available for public comment at www.regulations.gov.
