A law adopted in 1996 requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to begin reporting in 1997 on the costs and benefits of federal regulatory programs. The OMB's first effort raises as many intriguing questions as it answers.

• The report concludes that its best estimate of total regulatory costs in 1997 is $279 billion.

• However, the OMB elected not to include tax paperwork (roughly $150 billion, the value of more than 5 billion hours of taxpayers' and accountants' time) and "transfer payments" (also about $150 billion, the value of price increases to consumers resulting from government regulations) in its estimate.

• In its report on the government's regulatory program in 1991 and 1992, the OMB did include both - and estimated the total cost of regulation in 1990 at between $484 billion and $508 billion.

The 1996 law required the OMB to estimate the costs and benefits of each rule costing over $100 million. But the OMB presented estimates for only 21 regulations, and those estimates were provided by the agencies that issued regulations. Furthermore, no attempt was made to present costs and benefits for major regulations established prior to 1997.

The law also called for OMB to recommend reform or elimination of any regulation found to be inefficient, ineffective or nor a sound use of , the nation's resources. Its report termed economic regulation in general as inefficient because costs are imposed with only nominal benefits, but it made no recommendations for reforming or eliminating any specific regulation.