For those with an interest in the issue of budgets for the costs of regulation as a potential reform of the regulatory system, there have been some recent developments:

• In the budget resolution adopted by the House Budget Committee on March 16, 2016 (H.Con.Res. 125), section 605 is titled “Policy Statement On Federal Regulatory Budgeting And Reform”. It sets out detailed findings, and a policy that “It is the policy of this concurrent resolution that the House should, in consultation with the public, consider legislation that”, among other regulatory reforms, “requires—(A) an annual, congressional regulatory budget that establishes annual costs of regulations and allocates these costs amongst Federal regulatory agencies”. See here.
•  During Senate debate on February 2, 2016, with regard to amendments to S.2012, the Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2015, Senators Sullivan and Tillis offered an amendment SA2996 for a form of “one-in, one-out” budget for new regulations, comparable to S.1944, the Red Tape Act of 2015. The vote was 49 in favor of the amendment, and 46 opposed, even though at least three Republican Senators were absent because of the Presidential primary campaigns (Cruz, Graham, and Rubio). However, the amendment failed because of a 60-vote threshold requirement. See here.
• Sam Batkins has recently published a very interesting essay for the Administrative Law Review, titled “A Reply: The Regulatory Budget Takes Form”. See here and here .
• Sam Batkin’s article is a reply to one that Brian Callanan and I had published in the Fall 2014 Administrative Law Review, available here. I recently published in National Affairs journal a follow-up essay, “Putting Regulators on a Budget”, available here.