OIRA@2050

From: RegBlog

James Hobbs

At least one critic has called the multi-year implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act “plodding impotence,” echoing a strain of popular and anecdotal evidence that the American regulatory system is broken down because it moves too slowly.  However, a recent study shows that the median process of making a new regulation is completed within only twelve months.

Undue  delay is one of the major critiques of the current rulemaking structure, with popular accounts of the American regulatory state frequently focusing on stories of bureaucratic delay, sluggishness, and rigidity. For instance, many scholars have pointed to the ten years it took the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to decide if peanut butter must be composed of a minimum of about 90 percent peanuts.

From: Healthwatch/The Hill’s Healthcare Blog

By Elise Viebeck

Powerful healthcare advocates pressed the Obama administration Monday to  issue long-overdue regulations that would expose financial relationships between  doctors and industry.

AARP, the AFL-CIO and 17 other healthcare advocacy  groups told the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that regulations for the  Physician Payments Sunshine Act are essential to protect patients and eliminate  fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.

“There is a significant consequence for  healthcare system costs associated with the ongoing delay in implementation  because of the practice by some physicians of over-prescribing certain drugs, or  by otherwise prescribing medically unnecessary and expensive treatments,” the  groups wrote.

From: PG Pipeline/Perspectives & Projections from the Podesta Group

By Sally Katzen and Alex Stapleton

As we are about to begin President Barack Obama’s second term, the landscape is roughly the same as it has been for the past two years, with a few key dynamics slightly altered. President Obama remains in the White House, although he will not have to worry about re-election. The Republicans retain a comfortable margin in the House, although the caucus may be more fractious than it has been. And, the Democrats now hold a slightly larger advantage in the Senate, but will still not control the 60 votes necessary to overcome Republican opposition on contentious issues.

From: BNA/Bloomberg

By Stephen Lee

Increasing numbers of U.S. employers are embracing the notion that protecting worker safety is good for business, David Michaels, head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, told BNA Jan. 4.

“It’s hard for me to judge overall changes,” Michaels said, “but I certainly have seen many employers recognize that managing for safety is useful not only to prevent injuries and fatalities, but in fact leads to a more profitable company. And I believe that’s being embraced much more widely.”

From; FederalNewsRadio.com, 1500AM

By Jason Miller

White House technology leaders are close to issuing a new policy that will change the way agencies release data to the public.

Todd Park, the federal chief technology officer, said Friday the new policy is one of several steps to spur the release of more data from agencies.

From: The Hill

By Kevin Bogardus

A long-running Washington watchdog group that closely tracks federal regulations is getting a new name.

OMB Watch will now be known as the Center for Effective Government, the group announced Monday. Katherine McFate, the group’s president and CEO, said the new moniker is a better reflection of their work.

“Center for Effective Government better reflects the overall goal of our work and the breadth of the issues we cover. It makes clear our commitment to promoting the idea that ‘government matters’ and that an effective, responsive, accountable government is fundamental to restoring public trust in democracy and to achieving a more just, sustainable, inclusive economy,” McFate said in a statement.

From: Forbes

Wayne Crews/Competitive Enterprise Institute

The premise that national top-down  regulation of the economy brings substantial net benefits dominates public policy.

But forget the philosophical debate over laissez-faire vs. the managed economy for a moment; do we really know regulations do more good than bad?

Of the 3,500-plus rules enacted each year, what gets audited?

The “Funnel”–the rule-flow trends we can glean from the Office of Management and Budget’s regulatory review program–says “not much.”

Over the past decade, federal regulations with cost estimates have made up less than half a percent of the total annual rule flow of over 3,500.

From: RegBlog

Cary Coglianese

Have  you noticed the pattern? A private company cuts corners on risk control; a terrible disaster occurs; and then politicians and the public blame . . . the U.S. regulatory system.

The  latest example: a Massachusetts drug compounding pharmacy that contaminated vials of steroids and caused hundreds of cases of fungal meningitis, including dozens of deaths. Even while the Food and Drug Administration was still responding to the serious public health threat, the FDA Commissioner had to answer angry questions from members of Congress. Representative Cliff Stearns (R-FL) told Commissioner Margaret Hamburg that the meningitis outbreak “was a complete and utter failure on the part of your agency.”

Editor’s Note:  OMB’s review of the EPA report demonstrates the triumph of quality control over fleeting sensationalism.  Under federal law, agencies are prohibited from releasing information until the quality of the information has been substantiated through a pre-dissemination review process, a process that OMB has statutory reponsibility for administering.  Moreover, review of regulations and related information by OMB and its Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is a long-established practice now in its 8th consecutive administration.  The result is a win for the American people in the form of higher quality and more reliable information and regulatory analysis even if it may be a loss for headlines-first-accuracy-later reporting. 

From: HR.BLR.com

By Susan Schoenfeld, JD, Senior Legal Editor

The Office of Federal Compliance Programs (OFCCP) recently announced that its proposal to revise the agency’s functional affirmative action program for federal government contractors was approved by the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).

OFCCP’s functional affirmative action program is designed to provide multi-establishment contractors that have large business or functional units with the option of creating AAPs that better fit their business needs.