MOST RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

The outlook for legislation related to risk analysis that might be proposed in the 109th Congress is unclear. In the 108th Congress, there was little legislative activity involving environmental risk analysis or broader regulatory reform legislation. The House passed H.R. 2432, directing the President's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to conduct a study of regulatory budgeting focusing on programs at three agencies, potentially including EPA, and to include the results of the study in the annual report to Congress on the costs and benefits of federal regulations, but no further action occurred prior to adjournment. On the other hand, administrative reforms promoting risk analysis that were begun during the 107th Congress continued and intensified in the 108th, particularly in the form of directives from the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in OMB. OIRA is likely to continue to support regulatory reform during the 109th Congress.

Previous releases:

/NLE/CRSreports/04sep/IB94036.pdf

/NLE/CRSreports/04Jul/IB94036.pdf

/NLE/CRSreports/03Sep/IB94036.pdf

/NLE/CRSreports/03Jul/IB94036.pdf

/NLE/CRSreports/03Jun/IB94036.pdf

/NLE/CRSreports/03Apr/IB94036.pdf

/NLE/CRSreports/03Apr/IB94036.pdf

/NLE/CRSreports/03Feb/IB94036.pdf

/NLE/CRSreports/02Dec/IB94036.pdf

/NLE/CRSreports/IB94036.pdf

/NLE/CRSreports/Risk/IB94036.pdf

/NLE/CRSreports/Risk/rsk-1.pdf

/NLE/CRSreports/Risk/rsk-1.cfm

Abstract: At this time, it is not clear whether the 109th Congress will consider new proposals to require environmental risk analysis or broader regulatory reform legislation. No such legislation was enacted by the 108th Congress.

However, administrative reforms promoting risk analysis continued, building on efforts begun during the 107th Congress. Risk analysis is the systematic evaluation of hazards and their possible effects. Views on the potential uses of risk analysis differ. Although, most experts and policy-makers agree that risk analysis is a valuable tool to inform decisions, they disagree about the extent to which risk estimates may be biased and should be allowed to influence public policies to protect health and the environment.

Some Members, many academics, and regulated industries argue that risk analysis is objective and reflects sound science. They argue it should be used to target federal programs to address the worst risks to health and the environment first, to achieve risk reduction in more cost-effective and flexible ways that minimize overall economic impacts, and to ensure that risk reduction achieved by regulations is worth the cost.

Other Members, some academics, and many environmentalists argue that excessive reliance on risk analysis to evaluate problems and solutions related to human health and the environment, especially quantitative risk analysis, ignores other important facets of policy decisions, such as environmental impacts, timeliness, fairness, effects on democratic rights and liberties, practicality, morality, reversibility of effects, regulatory stability, flexibility, or aesthetic values. Critics charge that quantitative methods cannot assess very long-term or newly discovered threats. They also believe that quantitative cost-benefit analyses (which are derived in part from risk analyses) undervalue environmental and health benefits, exaggerate costs, and focus on relatively widespread but individually small costs and risks, rather than on much larger costs and risks to smaller, and often more vulnerable, groups. In addition, critics charge, risk analysis typically evaluates data for wellstudied and relatively well-understood hazards, ignoring emerging concerns about hazards that are poorly understood.

The quality (and value) of any risk analysis depends on adequacy of data and validity of method. For environmental hazards and most health and ecological effects, data are limited, methods are controversial, and consequently, quantitative risk estimates are very imprecise and highly uncertain, offering little guidance to policy makers. [read report]

Topics: Risk & Reform, Legislative