Legislation requiring the Securities and Exchange Commission to review the costs of rules and justify the benefits was approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday by 243-184 vote.
The SEC Regulatory Accountability Act, H.R. 78, was sponsored by Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., who called it “common-sense legislation” that regulators should already be doing.
The SEC is currently required to conduct cost-benefit analysis of rule-making. The legislation would prohibit the SEC from issuing a rule when it cannot make “a reasoned determination that the benefits of the intended regulation justify the costs of the regulation.”
Existing regulations would have to be reviewed every five years, and outdated or excessively burdensome ones would have to be changed or repealed under the bill, which has no counterpart in the Senate and no further action is scheduled.