OIRA@2050

From: Nature

Jeff Tollefson

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What comes next?

After the bill is enacted, the EPA will draw up rules for its new review process, which includes determining the fees that companies will need to pay to submit chemicals for government review. The legislation allows the agency to collect up to US$25 million per year in fees to supplement its budget for chemical regulation, which is intended to cover roughly one-quarter of the total programme cost.

Editor’s Note: See A Website Dedicated to the Implementation of a Regulatory Budget.

From: The Daily Signal

Sen. Mike Lee

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Under the discipline of a regulatory budget, Congress would be directly responsible for the size and scope of the regulatory state. Executive agencies could still issue and enforce their rules, but only so long as their impact fits within the regulatory-cost limits established by Congress.

This would give regulatory agencies—really for the first time—an incentive to make their regulations cost-effective. They would be made to work for the American people instead of the other way around. And the American people, for their part, would be empowered to make informed judgments at the ballot box about economic regulations.

Editor’s Note: The GPRAMA provides the mechanism by which OIRA can leverage OMB’s budget powers to ensure that each agencies regulatory activities are (1) necessary for the agency to achieve its goals and (2) are conducted efficiently and consistent with all requirements.

From: GAO | GAO-16-509

From: Yale Journal of Regulation | Notice & Comment

by Sam Halabi

The CDC announced today that the number of pregnant women in the U.S. infected with the Zika virus has tripled from 48 to 157. The escalation is a reminder of how difficult a public health emergency Zika will be to address given the complex nature of its victims. In my last post, I explained how a Zika vaccine (and vaccines in general) face numerous regulatory obstacles when developed for diseases for which inoculation during pregnancy is the most promising intervention. In this post, I explain why addressing those obstacles is such a significant public health issue.

Editor’s Note: The failure of regulatory reform legislation to tame the regulatory state is further evidence of the need for a Regulatory Budget.

From: The N.Y.U. Journal of Legislation and Public Policy | Volume 19, Issue 1

Stuart Shapiro & Deanna Moran, “The Checkered History of Regulatory Reform Since the APA”

From: BioWorld

By Michael Fitzhugh

Heeding growing interest in the sway of tiny microorganisms over human health, climate change and other critical issues, a new National Microbiome Initiative launched by the White House kicked off Friday with a commitment of $121 million in federal dollars and more than $400 million in financial and in-kind contributions from private stakeholders to support interdisciplinary research, platform technology development and new applications in the young field.

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From: Government Executive

By Dan Chenok and Alan Howze

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To seek answers to these questions, the IBM Center for The Business of Government and the Partnership for Public Service co-hosted a roundtable earlier this year to discuss how the next administration can get off to a strong and fast start. The Roundtable brought together current and former senior officials from Administrations of both parties, as well as experts from academia, the private and nonprofit sectors. The robust discussion surfaced a number of practical actions that a new administration can take, starting with the transition, to increase the odds of success.

Editor’s Note: A Regulatory Budget would change the forecast.

From: RegBlog | Penn Program on Regulation

Sam Batkins

As RegBlog celebrates its five-year anniversary, what will the regulatory world look like during the next five years? More acrimony, legal and political battles, debate about the role of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)? Yes to all, regardless of which party occupies the White House in 2017.

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From: The White House

by Ed Felten

Summary: Today, we’re announcing a new series of workshops and an interagency working group to learn more about the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence.

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Like any transformative technology, however, artificial intelligence carries some risk and presents complex policy challenges along several dimensions, from jobs and the economy to safety and regulatory questions. For example, AI will create new jobs while phasing out some old ones—magnifying the importance of programs like TechHire that are preparing our workforce with the skills to get ahead in today’s economy, and tomorrow’s. AI systems can also behave in surprising ways, and we’re increasingly relying on AI to advise decisions and operate physical and virtual machinery—adding to the challenge of predicting and controlling how complex technologies will behave.

From: The Hutchins Center at Brookings and the Serious Games Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson Center

About the Game

The Fiscal Ship challenges you to put the federal budget on a sustainable course. Measured as a share of gross domestic product, the federal debt is higher than at any time since the end of World War II and projected to climb to unprecedented levels. America is looking at a permanent, growing mismatch between revenues and spending, and policymakers are faced with difficult decisions about how to reconcile important government priorities—including retirement and health benefits promised to the growing number of old folks—with the tax revenues that the current tax code will yield. Today’s tax code won’t yield enough revenue to pay for basic services of government plus the retirement and health benefits promised to the growing number of old folks. So your mission is to pick from a menu of tax and spending options to reduce the debt from projected levels over the next 25 years. Small changes to spending and taxes won’t suffice. The choices are difficult, but the goal is achievable.