EDITORIAL: Easing burden of federal regulatory compliance

The Trump administration has made strides in chopping away at the corpulent federal administrative state. Nevertheless, the Competitive Enterprise Institute estimates that government regulations still pile $2 trillion in annual costs on American consumers, or nearly $16,000 per household.

“Businesses and citizens spend too much time and money trying to comply with rules and edicts imposed by Washington,” Wayne Crews, the institute’s Fred L. Smith Jr. fellow in regulatory studies, noted last month, “and those costs mean higher prices, lost jobs and lower quality of life for us all.”

Some of these rules certainly serve a legitimate purpose, but many others are protectionist, anti-competitive or driven by minutia. In addition, many regulations are confusing, duplicative and a minefield for those who must comply. Consider the tax code.

It was with this in mind that the House last year passed the bipartisan H.R. 1515, the Guidance Out of Darkness (GOOD) Act, introduced by Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, and Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat. The measure mandates that bureaucracies make available information regarding agency interpretations of the regulations that they impose on the American people.

“Unfortunately,” Rep. Comer said in a news release, “agency guidance documents are difficult to find, leaving Americans and small businesses guessing, and oftentimes struggling, to comply with the law. The Guidance Out of Darkness Act rights this wrong by requiring federal agencies to be transparent about interpretations of the law through publishing guidance in an easily accessible, online location. Laws should not be implemented based on guidance that’s kept in the dark.”

As the CEI points out, federal regulatory agencies publish 3,000 new rules annually, but the details about how such regulations will be enforced or interpreted are often murky. Agencies typically “rely extensively on policymaking that is much harder to track: guidance documents, interpretive rules, policy statements, memoranda, FAQs, circulars and other sub-regulatory materials. In essence, ‘regulatory dark matter’” that often drives how these rules will be applied.

The GOOD Act would ensure that agencies create a searchable website where users can access so-called guidance documents. “This common-sense reform would give the public, Congress and regulated parties a more complete understanding of federal regulatory activity,” Mr. Crews and other supporters of reform argued in a recent letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, urging him to move the bill forward.

While fewer regulations should be the long-term goal, providing a means for interested parties to better understand how to navigate the dense thicket of federal rules is long overdue. The Senate should send this bill to the president’s desk.