5 Steps Could Improve Regulatory Decision-Making

The Mercatus Center recently released five steps it believes would lead to better decision-making at regulatory agencies: [1]

1. Avoid "ready-fire-aim" rulemaking, in which decisions are made first, and then economists are expected to produce a benefit-cost analysis that supports those decisions.

2. Ensure the independence of economists (and other analysts) and give them incentives to conduct objective analysis. For example, have economists work in a separate office or bureau, and make sure they are not supervised by the policy staff who write the regulations that the economists will evaluate.

3. Establish agency-wide standards for regulatory impact analysis that outline the topics that the analysis must cover and establish expectations for quality.

4. Explain how the economic analysis affected decisions about the regulation.

5. Invite the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to review the regulations and the accompanying analysis, just as it does for executive branch regulations. [2]

This comes at a time when 60 percent of Americans believe that "unelected or appointed government officials have too much influence in determining federal policy." Just 26 percent believe the balance between elected and unelected officials is about right. [3]

Additionally, 47 perccent definitely believe there is a "group of unelected government and military officials who secretly manipulate or direct national policy." Another 27 percent believe such a secret group probably exists. [3]

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Footnotes:

1. Mercatus Center, "Five Steps to Improve Decision-Making at Independent Regulatory Agencies," March 20, 2018
2. Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributed to the original source.
3. Monmouth University, "Public Troubled by 'Deep State,'" March 19, 2018

Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology. Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.​

Scott Rasmussen is founder and president of the Rasmussen Media Group. He is the author of "Mad as Hell: How the Tea Party Movement Is Fundamentally Remaking Our Two-Party System," "In Search of Self-Governance," and "The People’s Money: How Voters Will Balance the Budget and Eliminate the Federal Debt." Read more reports from Scott Rasmussen — Click Here Now.