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News & Analysis | REG•WATCH Blog | Press Room
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Sunset perspective
With the White House's release of a proposal to give itself the power to restructure government at whim through the use of sunset and results commissions, it's worth revisiting an online conversation with Osha Davidson, Rolling Stone reporter who covered the sunset/results proposals back when they were first threatened, from the blogs Booman Tribune and Daily Kos. Here's a glimpse at the experience in the states of sunset commissions:
The success of sunset laws in the "laboratories of Democracy" has been overstated by proponents of a federal version. The only thing I found that was close to a true study of state sunset laws was a joint effort by The National Legislative Program Evaluation Society and the National Association of State Legislatures. It was presented in August 2001 at the NCSL's annual meeting. Forty-five states responded to a survey about sunset provisions. Of those 45: 13 never had any sunset provision, 16 states had once had a sunset provision but had since dropped it, and 16 states reported that they still had a sunset provision of some kind. As many states have ended their sunset laws as have kept them, and nearly as many never adopted them in the first place.
BTW, I asked Clay Johnson if OMB had studied the success/failure of state commissions. He said (from my interview notes): "No, because they operate differently in each state. There's nothing magical about a sunset commission. It's all about the spirit in which they're launched and the spirit in which the commission is formed. They have to be created with the best intentions in mind."
Don't trust that these new commissions would be "created with the best intentions in mind." The Bush administration's regulatory record is a pattern of failure to serve the public as the White House essentially allows special interests to take over the government programs that should be protecting the public.
Posted by Robert Shull
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