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Regulatory Oversight and Benefit-Cost Analysis: A Historical Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2020

Susan E. Dudley
Susan E. Dudley*
Affiliation:
The George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center, USA E-mail: sdudley@gwu.edu
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Extract

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Executive Office of the President coordinates the federal government’s regulatory agenda, reviews executive branch agencies’ draft regulations, and oversees government-wide information quality, peer review, privacy, and statistical policies. Remarkably, its regulatory oversight functions, and the benefit-cost framework underlying them, have not changed significantly through six very different presidential administrations. This article examines the evolution of executive regulatory oversight and analysis from the 1970s to today, exploring the reasons for its durability and whether the current imposition of a regulatory budget challenges the bipartisan nature of regulatory practice.

Type
Comment
Information
Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , Spring 2020 , pp. 62 - 70
Copyright
© Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis, 2020

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