Message to the Congress Transmitting a Report on Federal Regulatory Policy

To the Congress of the United States:

This annual Regulatory Program of the United States Government, created pursuant to Executive Order No. 12498, sets forth my Administration's regulatory policies, goals, and objectives for the coming year. This Regulatory Program, containing submissions of the most significant regulatory activities planned for the year, increases agency accountability for regulatory actions, facilitates coordinated Federal regulatory policy, helps reduce unjustifiable regulatory burdens, and provides the public and the Congress with better access to the regulatory plans of the executive branch.

Federal regulations to implement the laws that protect Americans' health and safety, environment, and economic system are crucial to the public welfare. But these regulations must be efficient and cost effective. We cannot afford for them to be otherwise.

Americans spend billions of hours and billions of dollars each year dealing with Federal regulations and paperwork. With over 100 agencies implementing thousands of regulations, the Federal Government affects nearly every facet of American life. Although intended to benefit and protect the American public, Government regulations may -- through faulty design or clumsy implementation -- have an opposite, even harmful, effect. When Federal regulations impose costs that exceed benefits, taxpayers, consumers, and businesses alike are adversely affected -- paying both higher prices and higher taxes.

That is why we are committed to regulatory reform and paperwork reduction. This Nation must devote its maximum energies and capital to growth and prosperity, consistent with protection of health and safety and the environment.

To reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens, I have asked the Council on Competitiveness, chaired by Vice President Quayle, in conjunction with the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, to ensure agency adherence to the cost-benefit principles and the regulatory review process outlined in Executive Order No. 12291. At a recent meeting of the Council, the Vice President reaffirmed the Administration's commitment to remove excessive regulatory burdens, and regulatory agencies renewed their commitment, consistent with law, to reduce the amount of regulation and ensure that rules clearly maximize benefits and minimize costs.

By assuring implementation of the basic principles set forth in Executive Order No. 12291, I believe this country can achieve a more rational, more reasonable regulatory policy that both protects health and safety and the environment and benefits American consumers as well as our global competitiveness.

George Bush

The White House,

November 5, 1991.