The OIRA Module: Published Research

Editor’s Note: The concept of Regulatory Budgeting was pioneered at OMB, see here. Centralized regulation in the U.K. is discussed here.

From: American Action Forum

By Sam Batkins

The American Action Forum (AAF) has spent considerable time outlining the efficacy, potential benefits, and international perspectives behind a budget for federal regulation. Now, Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK) has sponsored the “RED Tape Act of 2015” (S. 1944), which aims to install a British-style “one-in, one-out” method for regulatory accounting.

Read Complete Article

From: RegBlog | Penn Program on Regulation

What does it mean to be an “excellent” regulator? What qualities does regulatory excellence require? How is such excellence measured? And how can a regulator achieve the goal of regulatory excellence?

A new report, issued today by Penn Law professor Cary Coglianese for the Penn Program on Regulation’s Best-in-Class Regulator Initiative, answers these questions. The report culminates the Initiative’s efforts to define “regulatory excellence.” The project, commissioned by the Alberta Energy Regulator and led by Coglianese, incorporated papers from a wide range of scholars and multiple dialogues held both in Alberta and Philadelphia.

Read Complete Post

The publication of the Carter Regulatory Budget resulted in a number of subsequent actions by one or more Presidents.

                                           Bush (1)

Jeff  Rosen states:

C. George H.W. Bush Administration Regulatory Budgeting Proposals

Editor’s Note: See CRE’s 2002 Blueprint for OMB Review of Independent Agency Regulations here.

From: Truth on the Market

Alden Abbott

Last June, in Michigan v. EPA, the Supreme Court commendably recognized cost-benefit analysis as critical to any reasoned evaluation of regulatory proposals by federal agencies.  (For more on the merits and limitations of this holding, see my June 29 blog.)  The White House (Office of Management and Budget) office that evaluates proposed federal regulations, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), does not, however, currently assess independent agencies’ regulations (the Heritage Foundation has argued that independent agencies should be subjected to Executive Branch regulatory review).  This is most unfortunate, because the economic impact of independent agencies’ regulations (such as those promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, among many other “independent” entities) is enormous.

From: Northwestern Law Review

I strongly support the idea of a regulatory budget, but it needs to be carefully designed and implemented. As I will explain later in my testimony, we already have the functional equivalent of a regulatory budget in the form of Executive Orders issued by Presidents of both parties that are implemented by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). That regulatory budget is well-designed and well-implemented.

See  Pierce on Regulatory Budget

Submitted by:

Reeve T. Bull – Research Chief, Administrative Conference of the United States; Co-Chair of ABA Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice Section E-Rulemaking Committee

Over three decades ago, the United States was at the forefront of developed nations in creating a centralized system for regulatory review and rationalizing regulatory policymaking through the use of benefit-cost analysis.

In the ensuing thirty years, the United States’ system for executive review has changed very little, notwithstanding some minor readjustments. ^. In that same time period, other developed nations have enacted significant regulatory reforms, some of which involve copying the American framework but many of which represent new innovations that go well beyond what the United States has adopted.