The administrative state must be brought under control
Washington Examiner
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Federal debt will never be brought under control, nor will government’s intrusiveness be curtailed, unless people rein in the administrative state. Fortunately, some good suggestions on how to do so are published this week by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a think tank dedicated to the goal of freedom for all people and businesses from unnecessary regulations.
Today, CEI releases “Ten Thousand Commandments: An Annual Snapshot of the Federal Regulatory State,” which collects massive data on the problem and proposes thoughtful ways to ameliorate it. Most of the recommendations are superb, and we would add a few of our own.
“The cost of government extends well beyond what Washington taxes,” the report begins. “Federal regulations add another $1.939 trillion to Americans’ annual burden.” Worse, “many crisis regulations become permanent regulations, or last far longer than is warranted.” And “regulatory costs stand at nearly two-thirds the level of [all] corporate pre-tax profits” in the whole country. This means “U.S. households pay $14,514 annually on average in a hidden regulatory tax.”
Fortunately, CEI proposes nine big ways to reform the system. The first would restore Congress to its proper lawmaking role by requiring specific congressional approval of major new rules before a federal agency may put them into effect. Another would limit the president’s ability to use “emergency declarations” that impose permanent new government controls while evading usual legislative and rulemaking requirements. CEI also repeats perennial conservative demands that regulatory rules have “sunset” provisions so they will fall off the books automatically unless specifically reapproved.
Here’s another interesting one, although it needs to be fleshed out so it is clear how it would work: Create an executive “Office of No,” the job of which would be “to make the case against new and existing regulations and to facilitate ongoing sunsetting and streamlining.”
Government by commission should mostly be avoided and Congress should not slough off its responsibilities. But sometimes special commissions can break legislative logjams, as was the case with the 1990s military “Base Realignment and Closure Commission.” CEI recommends a commission or task force such as that proposed in the prior Congress by Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) called the LIBERATE Act, to “submit reports to Congress that would include a list of regulations recommended for repeal” and establish “expedited procedures” to do so in both chambers of Congress.
We would go farther than CEI. The problem of government bloat won’t go away just by providing added review of new regulations or eliminating old ones. Much larger change, of a decisively systemic level, is necessary.
All agency rulemaking is governed by a law passed in 1946 called the Administrative Procedure Act. Its requirements for multistep rulemaking now are antiquated and clunky, to say the least, which is one reason why it can take years just to get the permits needed for a new highway or bridge.
Many of the rules governing federal employment remain in place from the Pendleton Act of 1883, amended by Jimmy Carter’s less-than-successful Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. The resulting system, exacerbated by federal worker unionization under a separate 1912 law and two presidential executive orders, makes it nearly impossible to fire incompetent, lazy, or even significantly misbehaving federal workers.
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If the massive, unwieldy, and oft-abusive regulatory state is to be brought under control, both the Administrative Procedure Act and civil service laws need drastic reform. Because this will require a huge number of changes that will upset many political fiefdoms, Congress is probably incapable of completing the task through its ordinary operations. A commission modeled on the base closure commission or, better yet, the markedly successful Social Security commission in the early 1980s, should be appointed. It should propose comprehensive reforms to each, with an eye also on the interplay between administrative rules and the laws governing the employment of those who implement them.
CEI’s report is a great resource and its proposals should be welcomed and implemented. Combined with a commission for systemic change, they might even tame the federal Leviathan.