White House Rightly Moves to Relieve Cost of Some Business Rules

Credit the administration of President Barack Obama with implementing a review of regulations on business that impose extra costs for little gain. The administration announced the reforms on Tuesday.

The administration estimates that the changes will save businesses about $10 billion over the next five years.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Congress for the last three decades has directed administrations to review the cost-effectiveness of business regulations, but this is the first administration to have done so.

Among the revisions announced by the administration, the Journal reports, are a reduction in required paperwork for hospitals, a relaxation of a requirement that railroad cars be equipped with a certain kind of technology and permission for some businesses to file forms electronically.

The administration added an announcement that some frequent international travelers could obtain advance clearances and go through airport security more quickly.

In addition, Cabinet secretaries have been asked to review proposed new rules to see whether they are cost-effective or even needed in light of the weakness of the economy.

Plenty of roadblocks remain.

After all, the Federal Reserve has effectively declared that it expects the economic climate to remain shaky for the next two years, with its announcement that it will keep interest rates low into 2013.

And agencies such as the National Labor Relations Board, with its egregious ruling that Boeing can't start a new aircraft plant in right-to-work South Carolina, and the National Mediation Board, in overturning a 75-year-old rule governing unionization elections for airlines, continue to signal that parts of the government can be considered hostile to business interests.

Environmental Protection Agency regulations of the auto industry are vexing, though a promised mid-program review of stiff new fuel economy requirements could ameliorate their impact.

Still, the regulation revisions that were announced by the administration show that it is aware of the issue of the costs and burdens of regulation and is willing to make some gestures toward limiting those costs, and that's encouraging.

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