Regulation

The National Institutes of Health recently announced it would be engaging in a billion-dollar effort to encourage the development of new pharmaceutical therapies. The New York Times headline for this story sounded innocuous: “Federal Research Center Will Help Develop Medicines.” But not everyone is so sanguine about this effort.

Fox News, for example, reran the Times story under the header, “Obama Creating Billion Dollar Gov’t-Run Drug Company.”

The federal government promulgates thousands of regulations each year, at a cost to businesses and consumers that some have estimated at more than $1.75 trillion.

In order to make sense of the dizzying maze of new rules, the American Action Forum will tabulate and track major regulations emerging from more than 500 federal agencies.

Department of Defense’s Tuition Assistance Program and State Authorization of Schools

GAO’s recently released report on the Military's Tuition Assistance Program calls for more oversight of the for-profit education sector and is a dangerous attempt to inject more government regulation into higher education.

Background

In a hearing that spanned more than six hours, a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee voted to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) net neutrality order.  The Committee passed the resolution (H.J. Res 37) on a party-line vote, 15-8, sending the measure one step closer to the President’s desk.

As private-sector unions struggle, the NLRB proposes to lay a large thumb on the scale.

President Obama’s Budget should generally reflect our national priorities.  Based on his Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 request, the President thinks the nation needs more regulators and higher taxes.
 
EPA’s Explosive Growth Nets New Funding for CO₂ Regulation
 
Some budget hawks might be pleased with the proposed reductions in EPA funding.  However, the real story in the President’s Budget is the massive increases since FY 2009. 
 

This is “Regulation Week” on Capitol Hill. It’s like March Madness, only for politicians. A Presidential address and five congressional hearings have put the regulatory state, all 563 agencies, front and center. Politicians are beginning to understand that the EPA, the FCC and other regulatory bodies have a profound impact on job creation and economic freedom.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                      CONTACT: Jim Landry (202) 706-7050
January 31, 2011 

My graduate-school professor Alan Blinder took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal today to extol the job-creation virtues of a carbon tax: “The ‘bang for the buck’ from a phased-in carbon tax would be infinite at first: lots of jobs at zero cost to the federal budget.”