Congressman Sam Farr (Carmel), Ranking Member of the US House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development and the Food and Drug Administration, led debate on the U.S. House floor on June 15-16 during consideration of the FY 2012 spending plan.  Congressman Farr was instrumental in securing language to allow the unimpeded implementation of Section 10201 of the Farm Bill for pest and disease activities throughout California and the nation.

On June 21, the US Senate Agriculture Committee adopted by voice vote CACASA-supported, H.R. 872, the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act of 2011.  The legislation must now be voted on by the full Senate. No decision has been made on when the Senate may take up the measure. 

Earlier, on March 31, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 872 by a margin of 292-134.

If passed, H.R. 872 would amend the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA) and eliminate the court mandated requirement to obtain CWA permits to apply pesticides over, to, or near waters of the United States.

Budget constraints, high under-and-unemployment and recent bailout legislation are high among the many driving forces for federal, state and local government officials to eliminate waste, fraud, abuse and duplicity in government programs.  Across the U.S. lawmakers continue their quests to seek ways to streamline operations without upending essential public programs and services and appropriate levels of industry oversight.  Both democratic and republican leaders alike are working to ensure government programs for the 21st century so businesses can employ people and compete worldwide.

Last month the White House Office of Management and Budget released their 2011 Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations and Unfunded Mandates on State, Local, and Tribal Entities. The Report summarizes estimates by federal regulatory agencies of the quantified and monetized benefits and costs of major federal regulations reviewed by OMB over the last ten years.    

Between fiscal years 2001 and 2010, federal agencies published over 38,000 final rules in the Federal Register.OMB reviewed 3,325 of these final rules under Executive Order 12866.Of these OMB-reviewed rules, 540 are considered major rules, primarily due to their anticipated impact on the economy (i.e., estimated benefits or costs were in excess of $100 million in at least one year).

Table 1-1: Estimates of the Total Annual Benefits and Costs of Major Federal Rules by Agency, October 1, 2000 - September 30, 2010 (billions of 2001 dollars)

Rules with the highest benefits and the highest costs, by far, come from the Environmental Protection Agency and in particular its Office of Air. More specifically, EPA rules account for 62 to 84 percent of the monetized benefits and 46 to 53 percent of the monetized costs.The rules that aim to improve air quality account for 95 to 97 percent of the benefits of EPA rules.

Over the past ten years, only four rules have imposed costs of more than $100 million per year ($2001) on State, local, and tribal governments (and thus have been classified as public sector mandates under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995):

·         EPA's National Primary Drinking Water Regulations; Arsenic and Clarifications to Compliance and New Source Contaminants Monitoring (2001): This rule reduces the level of arsenic that is allowed to be in drinking water from 50 ppb to 10 ppb.

·         EPA's National Primary Drinking Water Regulations: Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment (2005): The rule protects against illness due to cryptosporidium and other microbial pathogens in drinking water and addresses risk-risk trade-offs with the control of disinfection byproducts. It requires the use of treatment techniques, along with monitoring, reporting, and public notification requirements, for all public water systems that use surface water sources.

·         EPA's National Primary Drinking Water Regulations: Stage 2 Disinfection Byproducts Rule (2006): The rule protects against illness due to drinking water disinfectants and disinfection byproducts (DBPs).

·         DHS's Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards Rule (2007): This rule establishes risk-based performance standards for the security of our nation's chemical facilities.

For future reports to Congress, OMB will emphasize:

1.    regulatory decisions and priority-setting should be made in a way that is attentive to the importance of promoting economic growth, innovation, job creation, and competitiveness.

2.    agencies should promote retrospective analysis of existing significant rules, with careful exploration of their actual effects and, when appropriate, consideration of steps to streamline, modify, expand, or repeal them.

3.    agencies should accompany all economically significant regulations with (1) a tabular presentation, placed prominently and offering a clear statement of qualitative and quantitative benefits and costs of the proposed or planned action, together with (2) a presentation of uncertainties and (3) similar information for reasonable alternatives to the proposed or planned action.

4.    agencies should carefully explore how best to treat non-quantifiable variables and should continue to use "breakeven analysis" when quantification is not possible, with such analysis defined as the specification of how high the unquantified or unmonetized benefits would have to be in order for the benefits to justify the costs.

5.    agencies should consider the use of cost-effectiveness analysis for regulations intended to reduce mortality risks, and should specifically consider the development of estimates for the "net cost per life saved."

6.    agencies should bring rulemaking into the twenty-first century by promoting public participation and transparency through the use of Regulations.gov and other technological means.

7.  in order to promote trade and exports, and thus to increase job creation, agencies should promote regulatory cooperation initiatives with key trading partners.

Click here to obtain of copy of the report.