Nafta’s Red Tape Fight Hits a Snag

From: Bloomberg

By Josh Wingrove and Eric Martin

  • Canada proposes adding cooperation council into trade pact
  • Observers say that may backfire with shift of powers to USTR

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Canada wants to roll the existing U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council into the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact Donald Trump is threatening to quit. Advocates of the Canadian proposal liked the idea of entrenching stronger harmonization of rules on things like food safety and drones while also adding Mexico into the mix — and doing so would also boost another Trump goal of cutting red tape for businesses.

Trump’s Regulatory Czar Defends Tip Pool Rule’s Transparency

From: Bloomberg/BNA

By Ben Penn

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Analysis Expected in Final Rule

Rao, speaking on a call hosted by the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project, used her opening remarks to emphasize OIRA’s commitment to giving the public access to cost-benefits data during regulatory and deregulatory actions.

In response to Bloomberg Law’s query on how her comments square with the DOL’s December proposed rule to permit tip sharing, she said, “We would expect to see the full quantitative analysis in the final rule, and hope that the comments can shed some light on what the scope of that is.”

Compliance into the Weeds-Episode 68-End of Regulatory Guidance?

From: JDSupra

In this episode Matt Kelly and myself take a deep dive into the weeds of the recent remarks by Neomi Rao, head of the Office for Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), the Administration’s top regulatory review office outlining ambitious plans for more deregulation in 2018 – including efforts to sweep independent federal agencies into her purview and to crack down on the “sub-regulatory” guidance that corporate compliance professionals consume all the time. The talk was given before the Brookings Institute and she touted the 2 for 1 kill order for new regulations the Administration heralded last year and claimed that over 1500 planned regulations had been pulled from review.

OIRA Seeks Policy Analyst

From: USA Jobs

POLICY ANALYST

Executive Office of the President

Office of Management and Budget

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Duties

Summary

If you are a status candidate, please apply under Announcement #OMB-18-23-KJ-MP.

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), within the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is seeking candidates for a policy analyst position in OIRA’s Information Policy (IP) Branch. OIRA is responsible for regulatory, information and statistical policy within OMB and the Federal government generally.

How many procurement regulations were finalized in 2017? The answer may surprise you

From: Federal News Radio

By Jason Miller

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The answer is: the FAR Council issued one final rule for the entire year.

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“Agencies are testing out how well they can get analysis through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in OMB,” he said. “I don’t know how much of a delay is not having a good process to measure the burden and cost benefit analysis. The predisposition of executive order is ‘don’t issue a new regulation even if they are regulations that agencies do want to put out.’”

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A conversation with OIRA Administrator Neomi Rao [video]

From: Brookings Institution Program begins at t=30:00 minutes

Will OIRA Review Independent Agency Regulations?

Editor’s Note: See, A Blueprint for OMB Review of Independent Agency Regulations.

From: Politico

Trump’s war on regulations is real. But is it working?

A year in, Trump’s rule rollback isn’t as dramatic as he claims. But a radical experiment is underway.

By

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Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Website is Now Up

From: @CassSunstein

Excellent news, applause for the leadership and the superb staff – a webpage is now up for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/information-regulatory-affairs/

January 26th: A conversation with OIRA Administrator Neomi Rao

From: Brookings

Upcoming Event

What’s next for Trump’s regulatory agenda: A conversation with OIRA Administrator Neomi Rao

One of President Trump’s first actions in office was to issue an executive order requiring that for every new regulation issued, at least two be eliminated. One year into the Trump presidency, it’s clear the administration has major deregulatory ambitions, but what’s happened so far—and what’s to come in 2018?

This year was easy; next year deregulating gets tough

From: Bloomberg Government

Cheryl Bolen

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Agencies are going to be systematically revisiting their regulations, which will take time, Rao said. There is a lot of discretion and room to roll back regulations, but it must be done in a way that’s consistent with law, she said.

OIRA also is reviewing a number of guidance documents and in many cases encouraging agencies to instead move ahead with a rulemaking, so there is more process and the public has an opportunity to weigh in, Rao said.

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