Whats the Rush on Mandates?
Environmentalists and others whose interests are served by Federal regulation have a name for the three main elements of what promises to be a sustained Republican effort to deregulate American society: the “Unholy Trinity.” The term connotes both respect and fear. There is merit in all three ideas. Yet critics fear that, taken together, they will cripple a quarter-century of Federal efforts to protect everything from the environment to worker safety. The ideas grew out of Newt Gingrich’s “Contract With America.” One would require compensation when property values are diminished by Federal regulation. A second would subject regulations to independent cost-benefit analysis, otherwise known as “risk assessment,” that could make it more difficult for Federal agencies to carry out rules. The third would make it harder for Congress to approve costly new “unfunded mandates” — obligations imposed on state and local governments without the Federal dollars to pay for them. These are seductive
