The Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) annual report to Congress on the costs and benefits of federal regulations provides clues to the changes the Obama administration will seek in the regulatory process. While the report includes some important changes to the way agencies might approach calculating the impacts of new rules, it does little to suggest that major changes to the central role OMB plays in the process are likely.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29, 2010—President Barack Obama issued a memorandum to executive department heads and agencies on Jan. 30, 2009, calling for a revision to the principles guiding the federal regulatory process. The memo required agencies to submit within 100 days recommendations for a new executive order. The memo also precipitated a call for public comments by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to gather the public's ideas for reforming the regulatory process. At the one-year mark of his administration, OMB Watch calls on the president to complete this process by issuing a revised executive order.

In its long-awaited decision on the dangers of bisphenol-A (BPA) exposure, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it believes there is some concern about the effects of BPA on children. This is a shift from the agency's recent position that BPA is safe. The agency says its ability to regulate the chemical, however, is limited by FDA's outdated regulatory authority.