Regulatory Cuts To Yield Billions In Savings, Says White House

The White House on Tuesday released a list of plans from an array of federal agencies to shed unecessary regulatatory rules that could save businesses as much as $10 billion over the next five years.

(Click here for the full list).

In an op-ed that appeared in today’s Wall Street Journal, President Obama’s top regulatory official, Cass Sunstein, said the cuts “will reduce costs, simplify the system, and eliminate redundancy and inconsistency.”

Later, Sunstein, who serves as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (part of the Office of Management and Budget), told reporters that the new reforms could also help grow the economy.

“We do see this as helpful to job creation.”

Of course, business advocates are concerned that any relief generated by eliminating old and outdated regulations will be dwarfed by new rules set to impact the nation’s financial, health care and environmental sectors. On Monday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce met the news with sarastic welcome.

“We…applaud the administration for taking the step that Congress first directed in 1980, that federal agencies, including independent agencies…undertake these regulatory lookbacks,” said USCOC regulatory expert William Kovacs.

Sunstein noted that although the White House has no plans to abandon efforts to implement reforms imposed by the new healthcare law or the Dodd-Frank Act, the current administration has a record of being business-friendly.

“The cost [of new finalized rules] was higher in 2007 and 2008, then in 2009 and 2010,” he said.