Jerry Ellig does his usual crackerjack work in this column on regulatory reform in the Washington Times.
[A]gencies need to understand the problem and potential solutions before they write proposed regulations.
This is not a revolutionary idea. Somewhere along the line in our schooling, most of us learned about a few basic steps to take before making a major decision. These steps include: 1) Define the goal you are trying to achieve, 2) understand the nature of the obstacles to be overcome or problems to be solved to achieve the goal, 3) develop a list of alternative ways to solve the problem and 4) assess the pros and cons of each alternative. Call this “Decision-making 101.”