SEC Regulatory Analysis 365 and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) reviews these regulatory impact analyses. 5 The question of whether the President should and could extend the executive orders and OIRA review obligations to independent regulatory agencies has been debated for some time, but no President has sought to do so. 6 Although the executive orders have not, to date, been extended to the SEC, the SEC has statutory analysis requirements. Most important among these obligations is a requirement that whenever the SEC has to consider whether a rulemaking is consistent with the public interest, the agency must "consider, in addition to the protection of investors, whether the action will promote efficiency, competition, and capital formation." 7 If it is to be more than a superficial box-checking exercise, consideration of a rulemaking's effect on efficiency, competition, and capital formation requires an analysis of the rule's benefits and costs. As Professors Paul Rose and Christopher Walker explained, "a failure to provide a reasoned explanation of the agency's consideration of efficiency-in other words, its analysis of the costs and benefits of the proposed regulatory action-would be arbitrary and capricious under the [Administrative Procedure Act]." 8 Section 23(a)(2) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) also requires rulemakings under that act to include a "determination that any burden on competition imposed by such rule or regulation is necessary or appropriate." 9 In addition, a number of discrete statutory provisions require the SEC to consider economic effects of rules adopted pursuant to those provisions. 10 In fulfillment of these statutory obligations, the SEC typically 5. See Exec. Order No. 12,866, supra note 3, § 2(b) (directing OIRA to review executive agency rulemakings). 6. The former head of OIRA "encouraged" independent agencies "to give consideration to"
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