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A bill introduced Thursday by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., would require financial industry regulators to perform "rigorous, consistent" economic analysis of each new proposed rule and bar the rule's issuance if the costs outweigh the benefits.

S. 1615, the Financial Regulatory Responsibility Act, would apply to the Federal Reserve System, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, FDIC, NCUA, Federal Housing Finance Agency, Financial Stability Oversight Council, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Briefly, the measure would require the agencies to perform the kind of analysis sought by House Financial Services Republicans in recent correspondence to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, with some key elements echoing a presidential order this summer urging all regulators to analyze their rules and find ways to make them more effective and less costly for the regulated. It is also the type of analysis NAFCU has urged by NCUA in its own recent letter to agency Chairman Debbie Matz.

The bill adds some things, including establishment of a Chief Economist Council. The council would include all the regulators' chief economists, who would have to report to Congress yearly on their activities. Additionally, it would require the agencies to incorporate data and analyses provided by commenters into their analysis or explain why they did not.

It also requires the SEC and CFTC to set plans to require self-regulated organizations to apply the proposed reforms in their own rulemaking processes.

Shelby, ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, introduced S. 1615 with eight original cosponsors, all committee Republicans: Mike Crapo of Idaho, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, David Vitter of Louisiana, Mike Johanns of Nebraska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Mark Kirk of Illinois, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Roger Wicker of Mississippi.