OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is instructing federal agencies to evaluate hundreds of regulatory recommendations submitted by outside parties as part of its new annual report on the costs and benefits of regulation.

These three White Papers from the American Forestry and Paper Association (AF&PA) advocate a risk-based exemption for EPA Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rules. EPA cited the papers in its proposed rule entitled "National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Brick and Structural Clay Products Manufacturing; and National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for Clay Ceramics Manufacturing," on which it is now accepting public comments. AF&PA White Paper on Concentration-based De Minimus Applicability on Exemptions in the Wood Products MACT

Evoking images of the corner grocery store and main street America, small business frequently resonates as a reason for easing off regulation. Yet the legal definition of “small” -- which is what really matters -- is actually quite big: for instance, it includes a general contractor with as much as $17 million in annual revenue, a chemical company with as many as 1,000 employees, and a petroleum refinery with as many as 1,500 employees -- not exactly mom and pop. OIRA Rejects SBA Rule Expanding "Small Business"

Here is a list of the 57 Information Collection Requests that were referenced in this Washington Post article on Tuesday, December 4. As described in the article, Barbara Kahlow, a Republican congressional aide for Rep. Doug Ose (R-CA), who chairs the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, convened key lobbyists to identify and rank regulations with associated paperwork that business groups find overly burdensome. According to Kahlow, this happened at the request of John Graham, administrator of OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).