Over the past several years, the conversation about regulatory protections that safeguard the environment, worker safety, and the health and welfare of American families has focused almost exclusively on the monetary costs to affected businesses rather than on the benefits they provide to everyday citizens. Conservatives repeat false or exaggerated cost estimates and overblown anti-regulatory rhetoric. And too often, news articles fail to report on the benefits of the standards and safeguards they are criticizing, making for a very one-sided public discussion.

The Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA), announced by Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH), Mark Pryor (D-AR), and Susan Collins (R-ME) and Reps. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Collin Peterson (D-MN) on Sept. 22, is a radical overhaul of the federal rulemaking process that would result in a system that allows powerful special interests to dominate. The bill would cast aside public health, worker safety, and environmental quality goals that are the basis of so many public protections and make estimated costs to businesses and the economy the most important consideration in rulemaking.