ICC ABOUT TO BE ELIMINATED

The nation's oldest regulatory agency, the Interstate Commerce Commission, will cease to exist at the end of the year, barring a presidential veto, which isn't anticipated.

The ICC accumulated enormous rate-setting power over the years since it was created in 1887 to regulate railroad fares and tariffs. Later the agency controlled other transportation involved in interstate business, until the deregulation movement peaked in the 1980s. This virtually eliminated the need for the federal commission.

While the impact of the ICC's demise is likely to be lower prices for users of rail, bus and truck services, the real winners are the American taxpayers who no longer will have to fund the superannuated agency. It is one more layer of government that has been peeled off.

Competition will be the determining factor for setting prices and levels of service. And there are still antitrust laws to prevent monopolies within the transportation industry.

In all likelihood, most Americans outside the transportation business won't notice that the ICC has gone. A good many other federal agencies could stand to meet the same fate.