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Commentary

End of Humphrey-Hawkins Reporting Requirement

Alan Greenspan

Tue, February 02, 1999

Let me take a minute to explain this issue of the Humphrey-Hawkins reauthorization. Unbeknownst to 104 percent of the world, [laughter] a piece of legislation went through the Congress a few years ago which effectively sunset virtually every report required to be issued by various governmental agencies. One reason it happened that way was because the legislation said that all reports listed in some obscure source would be "included under this Act," and that list included absolutely everything. Nobody here caught it except Don Winn, who does that sort of thing for a living. It came as a great puzzlement to everybody. So it turns out that under law the reporting requirements in the Humphrey-Hawkins Act--not the Act itself but the reporting aspect of it, I gather, Don--will expire at year-end.