OMB Seeking Public Comment on Regulatory Reform

On Jan. 30 President Obama issued a memo asking federal agencies to help him reform the regulatory process. Obama asked White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag to spearhead the effort, and set a deadline of 100 days. (The memo is here, background on the memo is here.)

In a welcome move, OMB is also engaging the public. OMB published a notice in today’s Federal Register soliciting public comment on the current state of the regulatory process and recommendations for improvement. The notice says, “[T]here has been an unusually high level of public interest [in Obama’s Jan. 30 memo], and because of the evident importance and fundamental nature of the relevant issues, the Director of OMB invites public comments on the principles and procedures governing regulatory review.”

Obama’s memo asks for recommendations on a new executive order on regulatory review. Presumably, Obama will revoke or substantially revise the current order, Executive Order 12866. Among other things, E.O. 12866 gives OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) the power to review and edit proposed and final regulations on behalf of the president. It also gives cost-benefit analysis a prominent role in regulatory decision making.

A new executive order should include a number of reforms:

  • OIRA should show more deference to federal agencies, and should not review each and every significant regulation;
  • Communications between and among the agency issuing the regulation, other agencies, the White House, and outside interests should be disclosed in an online, publicly-available rulemaking docket;
  • Agencies should not use scientific uncertainty as an excuse for failing to regulate – as they have in the past with issues like climate change or bisphenol-A;
  • Agencies should do a better job of describing the virtue of proposed and final regulations, as well as their expectations of the regulated community, without relying on dollars and cents calculations to make their point (as they currently do with cost-benefit analysis).

Of course, that’s just one man’s opinion.

You can submit comments to OMB by emailing them to oira_submission@omb.eop.gov or faxing them to (202) 395–7245. (OMB warns against snail mail.) OMB will accept comments until March 16.

Also, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below. (We will accept comments for as long as the internet survives.)

back to Blog