From: RegBlog
Sam Batkins
Not long before announcing that he will be leaving the administration, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator Cass Sunstein penned a memo to regulatory agencies urging “significant quantifiable reductions in paperwork burdens.” This latest memo comes on the heels of a variety of Executive Orders by President Obama on regulatory reform: 13610, 13609, 13579, and 13563.
From: FederalNewsRadio.com 1500AM
By Jason Miller
New budget guidance from the Office of Management and Budget is making significant changes to the way agencies manage their performance goals.
The updated A-11 Circular released late last week helps agencies prepare for their fiscal 2014 budget requests due to OMB in mid-September.
OMB traditionally releases an updated A-11 in June. The timing of this year’s release forces agencies to make some tough decisions in about six weeks.
From: ABA Journal
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A resolution passed by the ABA House of Delegates on Tuesday urges federal agencies to pursue regulatory cooperation with relevant foreign authorities.
The House passed Resolution 109B, which says the agencies should cooperate where appropriate and “consistent with their legal authority, statutory mandates, and regulatory missions.” The resolution states that U.S. agencies should work with their foreign counterparts to develop “common regulatory agendas, harmonized regulatory standards, information exchanges, and mutual recognition of tests and inspections.”
From: RegBlog
Cary Coglianese
“Flexible regulation” might sound like an oxymoron, but it has actually become a widely accepted catch phrase for a pragmatic approach to regulation. The phrase stakes out a middle ground between regulation’s defenders and its critics, promising the achievement of important health, safety, and environmental objectives while also minimizing costs and preserving liberty. For over thirty years, the ideal of “regulatory flexibility” has been embedded in federal law in the United States, with legislation requiring administrative agencies “to solicit and consider flexible regulatory proposals” when contemplating new requirements that would affect small businesses. Early last year, President Obama adopted a more general order to agencies to pursue “flexible approaches” whenever “relevant, feasible, and consistent with regulatory objectives, and to the extent permitted by law.” Agencies are now required to “identify and consider regulatory approaches that reduce burdens and maintain flexibility and freedom of choice for the public.”
Editor’s Note: For more information on Midnight Regulations, please see OIRA Watch here.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Obama administration agreed to set the first-ever federal limits on runoff in Florida, environmental groups were pleased. They thought the state’s waters would finally get a break from a nutrient overdose that spawns algae, suffocates rivers, lakes and streams and forms byproducts in drinking water that could make people sick.
Nearly three years later — with a presidential election looming and Florida expected to play a critical role in the outcome — those groups are still waiting. The rules, originally scheduled to take effect in March, now won’t be active until next January, and even then could be replaced altogether by state-drafted regulations.
By Richard Wolf
WASHINGTON (USA TODAY) — The pace of regulations issued by the Obama administration is receding as the nation’s economy falters and the 2012 election approaches.
Several of the most expensive and controversial rules — to protect the food supply, reduce exposure to silica dust, require rear-view cameras or other devices on cars, and more — remain under review by the White House long after they were expected to be published.
Advocates for the environment, health and safety say the delay signals an effort by the administration to reconsider the economic and political impacts of its actions, in light of the struggling economy and the 2010 midterm elections that empowered Republicans.
From: Bloomberg News
By Derek Wallbank
The U.S. House voted to block thousands of potential future regulations covering every facet of the economy touched by the U.S. government, including updates to rental subsidies for low-income tenants and Medicare payments for doctors and other health care providers.
The bill stands little chance of becoming law. With Election Day less than four months away, though, it allowed lawmakers a chance to vote against “Washington” by blocking basically everything the federal government does.
The vote, mostly along party lines, was 245-172.
From: OpenMarket.org (CEI blog)
by Ryan Young
When deficits are high, Congress has even more incentive than usual to indulge in unfunded mandates. That way it can deliver the spending programs and other government goodies that voters like, and without adding to the deficit. Of course, this is because states and the private sector bear the burden instead.
Congress passed an Unfunded Mandate Reform Act back in 1995, but it is mostly toothless, and needs to be strengthened. Fortunately, help may be on the way, as Wayne Crews and I explain in today’s Washington Times:
From: Mercatus Center
Sherzod Abdukadirov
At the end of every presidential administration, regulatory activity spikes during the “midnight” period between Election Day and Inauguration Day. This surge occurs even if the incumbent president is reelected. However, the surge is more pronounced if there is a change in administration. Unconstrained by the need to work with Congress, outgoing administrations often use this window to push through sweeping and controversial regulations. Once finalized, regulations often prove hard to repeal. During the surge, the agencies’ regulatory analysis quality drops and regulatory oversight by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) weakens. As a result, federal agencies produce ineffective regulation and waste public resources.
From: Bloomberg/BNA — Daily Environment Report
By Dean Scott
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and five other Republicans introduced legislation July 12 targeting “sue and settle” practices in which public interest and environmental groups take legal action against the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies to make existing regulations more protective or force agencies to expedite long-delayed rules.
The Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2012 (S. 3382) is the Senate companion to a House bill that is among several Republican deregulatory proposals slated for floor debate the week of July 23.
