Choose an answer (A,B, C or D)

Regulating (Rule Making) 1. Congress often gives bureaucratic agencies the power to write specific rules. Because of the complexity of the problems that government must face, Congress tends to create agencies and to specify the job or mission that it wants done and then charges the agency with using its expertise to do the job. Congress created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for instance, and gave it a mission-to help coordinate the cleanup of the nation's air and water-but it left to the EPA the power to set the specific standards that communities and businesses must meet. The standards set by the EPA have the force of law unless they are rescinded by Congress or overruled by the courts. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) writes rules about the introduction of new drugs that researchers and pharmaceutical companies are obliged to follow. (See the "using the Framework" feature for more on the FDA.) 2. Some critics believe that Congress delegates entirely too much lawmaking to the executive branch, but it is difficult to see what alternative Congress has. It cannot micromanage every issue. And in the end, Congress retains control; it can change the rules written by bureaucrats if they drift too far from congressional intent or constituent desires. 3. Other critics simply believe that there are too many rules and regulations. When candidates promise to "get government off our backs," the reference is to the purported burdens of regulation. Several attempts have been made to roll back executive branch rule making. Under Ronald Reagan, required cost-benefit analysis was introduced as a way to slow the rule-making process, for example. And all recent presidents have used the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to review "excessive" rule making. -Greenberg, Edward, and Benjamin Page. The Struggle for Democracy. 6th ed., New York: Longman, 2003. 396. O A. create a tax break for the entire population as well as decrease the authority of the Internal Revenue Service. O B. have the government leave critics alone by slowing the rule-making process. O D. ease the burden of governmental regulation on the common man. OC. require all presidents to implement a cost-benefit analysis