The Real Nine Most Terrifying Words in the English Language

"I'm Republican, and I want to do regulatory reform." Whether they've uttered that exact nine-word phrase or not, virtually every Republican on Capitol Hill has enthusiastically endorsed the sentiment it expresses at some point - if not on a near-daily basis - during the last few years. Who could blame them? The unshakable conviction that our regulatory system is broken and that gutting it is the key to its salvation is apparently one of the few areas where all the GOP's members can find common ground. Attacking the regulatory system has become a safe topic of conversation for conservatives - almost their version of "weather" small talk. And not for nothing, they're pretty confident it's a political winner, too. Witness this week, when both the House and the Senate have scheduled oversight hearings for the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) - an obscure bureau with a direct political line to the Oval Office that is charged with reviewing agency regulations. In practice, OIRA serves as the single most powerful antiregulatory force in the rulemaking process, translating the White House's political calculations and intense lobbying behind closed doors from well-connected corporate interests into the delay, dilution, or death of pending regulations. To my knowledge, both chambers of Congress have never scheduled two OIRA oversight hearings in the same week before. CPR Member Scholar Noah Sachs is scheduled to testify at the hearing before the House Judiciary's Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial, and Antitrust Law today. As he explains in his testimony, OIRA is arguably one of the greatest sources of dysfunction in the rulemaking process, working time and again to prevent agencies from carrying out their statutory missions of protecting people and the environment in an effective and expeditious manner. Specifically, he writes: Not only does OIRA review extend the length of time for rulemaking, but it also provides numerous opportunities for political interference with the content of the rule. During OIRA review of agency regulations, industry lawyers and lobbyists use OIRA as a court of last resort to weaken or block pending regulations that have been vetted within the agency that promulgated them.