OIRA@2050

From: Federal Times

By SALLY KATZEN

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has been called “the most powerful federal agency that most people have never heard of.”

But lately, OIRA, which serves as the focal point for regulatory policymaking in the White House, has come under attack by critics from the left and the right.

***

Authorized by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 and embraced by every president since, OIRA has overseen the federal regulatory process under administrations from both parties.

From: Daily Report for Executives™

By Cheryl Bolen

 President Barack Obama ordered it, top regulators swear by it and businesses could save billions of dollars from it. But when it comes to regulatory cooperation with Canada, some agencies just aren’t getting it.

***

In remarks to the RCC meeting, Howard Shelanski, the administration’s top regulator and head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, reiterated the strong commitment of the White House to international regulatory cooperation.

“Our bilateral work with Canada in particular presents a tremendous opportunity to expand and advance our economic relationship,” Shelanski said.

From: SSRN

Cass R. Sunstein | Harvard Law School

Yale Law Journal Forum, Forthcoming | Harvard Public Law Working Paper No. 14-17

Abstract:

Editor’s Note: The CRE Brazil website is available in English and Portuguese.

From: RegBlog/University of Pennsylvania

Bruno Queiroz Cunha

After Sunday’s first-round election in Brazil, the two finalists for the nation’s presidency present the country with two rather distinct approaches to regulation. When the election moves to its second round on October 26th, Brazilians will either choose to keep the moderate-left Dilma Rousseff for another four-year term or they will select Aécio Neves as the nation’s new center-right President. The competing interest groups and political parties that now support either Aécio Neves or Dilma Rousseff generally align themselves across the contemporary divide over regulation in Brazil.\

From: Mercatus Center/George Mason University

Richard Williams [1], James Broughel [2]

Over the last decade, federal regulatory agencies finalized more than 37,000 regulations, yet 92 percent of rules escaped review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), a small office tasked with reviewing significant regulatory actions promulgated by such agencies. Of the roughly 3,000 rules OIRA did review, only 116 have estimates of both benefits and costs appearing in OIRA’s annual report. Relative to the cost of many of these regulations, expecting agencies to analyze benefits and costs before issuing a rule is a fairly low bar to set.

Editor’s Note: To hear a specific regulatory proposal for regulating medical marijuana, see Jim Tozzi’s Keynote adddress at Americans for Safe Access’s Medical Cannabis Unity Conference, here.

From: E&E Publishing/Greenwire

Nick Juliano, E&E reporter

First in a three-part series.

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Randy Simmons never expected he would become Washington’s cannabis czar. He didn’t even want the job.

The day after Washington state voters approved Initiative 502, Simmons, whose official title is deputy director of the state Liquor Control Board, was called into a staff meeting and asked if he wanted to oversee implementation of the new law, which legalized possession of marijuana for adults over 21.

Editor’s Note: Senior Executive Service managers are making better use of agency performance information in making decision than non-SES managers according GAO’s new GPRA Modernization Act report, Managing for Results. GAO documented that (1) agencies are not improving their use of performance information in their decision-making processes, (2) SES managers are making better use of performance information than non-SES managers and (3) agencies need OMB assistance in improving their use of information. Thus, improvements in agency performance will require that SES corps use their social entrepreneurial skills to achieve improved use of performance information throughout their agencies.

From: GAO

From: The Harvard Law School Faculty Blog

Faculty Book Talk: Cass Sunstein’s Valuing Life: Humanizing the Regulatory State, Friday, October 10 at noon

From: ContractsProfBlog

By Jeremy Telman

We begin our upcoming virtual symposium with this introduction provided by the authors of the book that we are subjecting to strict scrutiny, Omri Ben-Shahar and Carl E. Schneider.

MORE THAN YOU WANTED TO KNOW: The Failure of Mandated Disclosure 

When he famously wrote 100 years ago, “Sunlight is the best of disinfectants,” Justice Louis Brandeis began a century of disclosure law.  How do we protect borrowers and investors? Disclosure! How do we help patients choose safe treatments and good health plans? Disclosure! How do we regulate websites’ privacy policies? Disclosure!

From: RegBlog/University of Pennsylvania Program on Regulation

Curtis W. Copeland

Congress enacted the Congressional Review Act (CRA) in 1996 to reestablish a measure of legislative control over agency rulemaking. The law generally requires federal agencies to send almost all of their final rules to both houses of Congress and the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) before those rules can take effect. As soon as a rule is “received by Congress,” any Member of Congress may introduce a CRA resolution of disapproval that, if signed into law, prevents the rule from taking effect or continuing in effect.