Accounting for Regulations

Expect a lot of sound and fury this year on environmental legislation--but do not expect much to pass. That is the assessment of Keith Cole, an attorney with Beveridge & Diamond and an expert in environmental legislative affairs who previously served as a top staffer on the Senate Small Business Committee.

Speaking to reporters at a briefing Tuesday, Cole said he expects only a couple of bills to make it through the House and Senate this year. Topping Cole's list of bills likely to pass is regulatory accounting legislation, which would require federal agencies to document how much money they spend promulgating regulations.

Such legislation, a version of which already has been introduced by House Commerce Chairman Thomas Bliley, R-Va., has caught the eye of Senate Governmental Affairs Chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and Cole believes Thompson will move a bill this year. Regulatory accounting legislation is not a necessary precursor to regulatory reform, Cole told CongressDaily, but legislators feasibly could combine the two in conference committee.

As for the regulatory reform bill introduced last year by Thompson and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., Cole predicted a markup vehicle will be ready by the end of the month, and it likely will be approved in committee by a strong bipartisan majority. But Cole said floor opposition from both sides of the aisle should be stiff.

The other bill Cole and his colleague Karl Bordeau believe has a shot at passage is some sort of piecemeal Superfund legislation that addresses brownfields recovery and reform of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.