OMB agrees regulations are a good deal

We told you yesterday about a story documenting the source of many regulatory delays: OIRA.

OIRA is a component of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). OMB now says (in a draft report) that regulations are cost-effective and produce billions of dollars in net benefits.

As the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards (of which Public Citizen is a member) explains:

The report estimates the total benefits and costs for major rules over the past decade. Over the past 10 years, regulatory protections have generated as much as $812 billion in annual benefits compared to as little as $57 billion in costs. That’s equivalent to $755 billion in annual net benefits, with benefits outweighing costs by more than 14 times.

In FY 2014 alone, the report finds as much as $18.9 billion in annual benefits for major rules compared to as little as $2.5 billion in annual costs. That’s equivalent to more than $16 billion in annual net benefits or seven times the costs.

Read the full Coalition press statement here.

It's time for OMB to listen to its own assessment and get out of the way of safety regulations, which benefit the public and save lives.

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