Senate mixed on regulatory reform

There appear to be mixed feelings among proponents of regulatory reform legislation in the Senate about its prospects this year. Some express optimism there will be a vote on the measure, while others say the bill is dead.

Some Hill sources in support of the measure say it is just a matter of time before Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., schedules floor time for the comprehensive reform measure, whose chief sponsors include Senate Governmental Affairs Chairman Fred Thompson, R-Tenn., and Sen. Carl Levin, D- Mich.

That view was supported by Majority Whip Don Nickles, R-Okla., who in an interview with CongressDaily late last week said the bill's prospects this year are "fairly good. ... I've told Sen. Thompson we're trying to help him get it to the floor." Nickles is a cosponsor of the measure, which would require agencies to perform and publish cost benefit and risk analyses for regulations.

But another of the bill's cosponsors, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D- W.Va., was far less sanguine. "I'd like to see it happen ... but I don't think it's had a future in some months," he said.

Rockefeller said he "did not even know" that Sen. John Breaux, D- La., had signed on in April as a cosponsor of the reform bill, bringing the number of Democrats supporting it to five. "That's how dead it is," he joked.

Even chief supporters in the business community say they do not believe the Senate would want to touch the controversial issue in an election year--especially now that the League of Conservation Voters has indicated it plans to keep an eye on the way members vote on the legislation should it be brought to the floor.

"It ain't going to happen this year," quipped one industry official, who said the business community has shifted its interests onto smaller bills such as the Mandates Information Act--a bill to which Levin is opposed because it emphasizes the cost of regulations but not their benefits--and legislation in the House that would create a new Congressional Office of Regulatory Analysis to analyze and review agency rules. The National Association of Manufacturers reportedly is preparing to send a letter to the House urging support for CORA.

But Levin, whose own environmental record is strong, continues to press forward with his bill, seeking out the support of moderate Democrats. Sources told CongressDaily earlier this year Lott said he will bring the bill to the floor once Levin has secured the support of at least 12 Democrats.

Gregory Wetstone of the Natural Resources Defense Council, a staunch opponent of the legislation, said the bill "is a political orphan. ... To sign onto this bill is basically to poke your finger in the eye of the nation's health community. ... It is not good politics to do that for a bill that is going nowhere."

But Nickles said he believes the bill does not merit "the kind of passions" that it has engendered among environmentalists. "There's no reason to get too bent out of shape on [it]," he said.