In Brief: Regulatory risk analysis proposal
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
Regulatory risk analysis proposal: Harvard Group develops a Risk Management Reform proposal, released March 20, that would coordinate activities among agencies including FDA, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Environmental Protection Agency under a single director. The proposal also suggests that regulators should "achieve a reasonable relationship between costs and risks when regulating risks." The report cites the Delaney Clause of the FD&C Act as an example of a law that prevents regulators from achieving this relationship. The two proposals encourage "decentralization" of government. A third proposal urges Congress to "approve plans submitted by regulatees that promise equal or more overall risk reduction" than compliance with federal regulations would achieve. A fourth recommendation would "transfer selected risk-management powers from the federal government to the state and local authorities" as a "policy experiment"...