The levers and wheels of government continue to turn despite layers of crises unfolding nationwide. In Washington, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Andrew Wheeler is making good on needed reforms to the agency’s benefit cost analysis strategy as part of a larger effort by the Trump Administration to fix our nation’s complex regulatory framework.
Standardizing this important analysis procedure across divisions of the EPA can help to improve the regulatory state’s decision making, which — unbeknownst to many — has significant impacts on private citizens. In May 2019, Wheeler outlined reforms that would ensure regulatory decisions among various agency branches are “rooted in sound, transparent and consistent approaches to evaluating benefits and costs.” Wheeler wrote that due to changing political affiliations and varying guidance on the concepts of benefits and costs used to determine agency regulations, there has been inconsistency and confusion among many historical rulemakings. Last year’s memo was spurred by Executive Order 13777 that directed agency leads to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens.