Microeconomics Required By Implementation Of Federal Law

President Bush's Executive Order 13422, dated 18 January 2007, further amends President Clinton's EO 12866, of 4 October 1993. These EOs are part of a family of EOs. This family defines a process for performing and reviewing cost-benefit analyses before any Federal agency promulgates any new regulations. As I understand it, President Reagan set up the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to review and approve these analyses. Here's an excerpt from the amended EO:

Section 1. Statement of Regulatory Philosophy and Principles.

(b) The Principles of Regulation.

(1) Each agency shall identify in writing the specific market failure (such as externalities, market power, lack of information) or other specific problem that it intends to address (including, where applicable, the failures of public institutions) that warrant new agency action, as well as assess the significance of that problem, to enable assessment of whether any new regulation is warranted.