Regulatory Transactions

Editor’s Note: The following are excerpts from joint PRA comments by major banking and financial services organizations to the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. The complete comments are available here.

We, the undersigned trade associations representing the financial services industry, write to express our concern with the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection’s (Bureau) request for approval under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) to conduct a national web-based survey of 8,000 individuals as part of the Bureau’s study of overdraft protection services. We appreciate the Bureau’s consideration of consumers’ experience with and understanding of overdraft services. However, we are concerned that the Bureau did not include in its submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a draft survey instrument on which the public could comment, despite OMB guidance requiring publication of the survey simultaneous with the Bureau’s request for comment. We urge the Bureau to re-submit its information collection request with the draft survey instrument.

From: The White House

Convening State and Industry Leaders; Supporting Strategies for the Long-Term Development of a Clean and Abundant Energy Resource Along All U.S. Coasts

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In addition, the White House is announcing the following actions in support of the development of offshore wind:

From: Bloomberg View

OIRA invoked its authority under the Paperwork Reduction Act in its joint Memorandum with OSTP to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, and of the Independent Regulatory Agencies implementing key sections of President Obama’s Executive Order Using Behavioral Science Insights to Better Serve the American People. The “Memorandum advises agencies on how to use behavioral science insights to improve Federal forms and informs them of resources and administrative flexibilities to assist with implementation of the Executive Order.”

Here is the announcement of the Student Writing Competition:

CRE Contest Final 6

From: HealthITAnalytics

By Jennifer Bresnick

The American Medical Association and forty other professional societies are strongly urging HHS and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) not to publish the finalized rule for Stage 3 Meaningful Use.

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“The physician community is extremely dismayed by recent press reports that the Final Modifications Rule and the Final MU Stage 3 Rule have been combined and this rule is now under review at the OMB,” the societies say in a pair of letters addressed to Shaun Donovan, Director of the Department of Management and Budget and Secretary Sylvia Burwell of HHS.

On September 8, 2015, the 9^th Circuit issued an opinion in Harkonen v. U.S. Dept. of Justice and U.S. Office of Mgmt. and Budget (No. 13-15197) in which it held that DOJ news releases are exempt from the IQA. The Circuit panel concluded that it should give deference to DOJ’s interpretation of its own IQA regulations as exempting all press releases. This is the latest court decision on the IQA and judicial review. A copy of the opinion is attached below.

The following material was downloaded from Information Quality Government-wide Initiatives from OMB’s website.

M-07-24, Updated Principles for Risk Analysis (September 19, 2007) (13 pages, 156 kb)

• Information Quality Government-wide Initiatives
  • M-07-24, Updated Principles for Risk Analysis (September 19, 2007) (13 pages, 156 kb)
    • News Release, OMB and OSTP Statements on Updated 1995 Principles for Risk Analysis(September 19, 2007)
  • Proposed Bulletin on Risk Assessment
    • Link to Public Comments on Proposed Risk Assessment Bulletin
    • Link to National Academy of Sciences (NAS) review of draft Risk Bulletin
    • OMB Proposed Bulletin on Risk Assessment (January 9, 2006) (26 pages, 157 kb)
    • OMB Requests Peer Review of Proposed Risk Assessment Bulletin (Press Release, January 9, 2006) (1 page, 44 kb)

From: RegBlog | Penn Program on Regulation

Paul R. Verkuil

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Professor Dilulio‘s dazzling data-driven response highlights the contractor problem in government. We do not know if contractors are better or more efficient than civil servants, but we do know that their use has grown exponentially, while the civil service has remained the same size it was during the presidency of John F. Kennedy. As Professor Dilulio shows, we now spend the same amount on service contractors as on the entire civil service. Some agencies are virtually run by contractors. The U.S. Department of Energy, for example, has about 13,000 civil servants and over 100,000 contractors, and I have a feeling that one would find similar ratios at the U.S. Agency for International Development. In these circumstances, the question of who is in charge is one with serious implications for our constitutional structure.

Editor’s Note: For an example of how career OIRA bureaucrats help fight poverty, see Accolades to the Census Bureau, OMB and BLS for Developing a Supplemental Measure of Poverty.

From: NACS Online | The Association for Convenience & Fuel Retailing

Proposal will provide clarity for state agencies to implement the photo EBT card option.  

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will soon issue proposed regulations related to the use of identification photographs on Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards used for the redemption of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.