Protecting Americans

Tuesday, May 18, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

During the Bush administration, industry was largely allowed to do as it wished. The White House gutted regulatory agencies, and regulators routinely ignored the law or watered it down to fit the former president’s laissez-faire approach to government.

That is changing under the Obama administration, which is trying to put new life in regulatory agencies. And that is good news for Americans. Under the Bush administration, there were too many reports of food-borne illnesses, workplace injuries and unsafe products.

The Bush administration tried to cast regulation as anti-business, and in the meantime, the public suffered. Regulation doesn’t have to be anti-business, as the current administration understands.

“We start from the perspective that we all want a cleaner environment, longer lives, improved safety,” says White House Office of Management and Budget chief Peter Orszag, whose office oversees major regulation changes. “Smart regulation can make people’s lives better off.”

Of course, that’s not to hear some industry groups tell it. They are squawking about what they say is the added cost of regulation. “Dollars spent on compliance with cumbersome regulations are dollars not spent on hiring new employees,” Erin Streeter, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Manufacturers, tells The New York Times.

That is a common complaint of industry groups, but businesses that are shortsighted don’t often look at the savings that can come to both businesses and society as the result of regulation. As the Times reported, the Obama administration says major rules put in place last year will save an estimated $3.1 billion. For example, the cost of requiring new, stronger brakes in tractor-trailers is expected to cut property damage and reduce 227 highway deaths a year, and that will certainly ease businesses’ liability. As we have noted before, good worker-safety programs can save companies millions of dollars, as well as keep workers from serious injuries or death.

Smart regulation, as Orszag calls it, also helps protect consumers. The Obama administration is taking up regulations that stalled during the Bush years, including requirements that would help protect Americans from salmonella, which sickens 79,000 people a year.

Regulatory agencies also need to be bolstered after being drained during the previous administration. The Food and Drug Administration had 1,309 inspectors in the 2007 fiscal year. It soon expects to have 1,950 and has seen a 5 percent increase in inspections.

To many business groups and to the people who like to complain about government, this is the wrong approach. But consider that it wasn’t too long ago that the nation was fretting about dangerous products from China and tainted food, which showed the weaknesses in America’s regulatory system. Now there’s a well gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, and the federal oversight of oil rigs has been shown to be incredibly lacking.

The bottom line is that regulation plays an important role in protecting people. The Obama administration’s efforts to protect workers and consumers are welcome.