Regulatory Transactions

Editor’s Note: For information about the limits of Presidential authority, please see here.

From: Bloomberg View via Richmond Times-Dispatch

BY CASS R. SUNSTEIN

In the aftermath of President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, there is a lot of confusion about the phrase “executive actions.” The president has an assortment of different tools, and it is important to distinguish among them.

From: PoliticoPro

By HELENA BOTTEMILLER EVICH

Part of a POLITICO Pro Special Report series on the Obama administration’s executive action and regulatory agenda.

The Obama administration is moving ahead to make its mark on the American food system.

From: The Hill/RegWatch

By Tim Devaney

The Obama administration is poised to issue regulations that target truck drivers who have failed drug or alcohol tests.

The  new rule from the Department of Transportation would establish a federal database of commercial truck and bus drivers who have failed or refused  to take the tests. The database would be available to trucking companies so that they can perform background checks before hiring prospective employees.

The White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) this week completed a review of the rule, which was originally submitted for approval in March 2013. All economically significant regulations must go through OIRA before they are published in the Federal Register.

From: Farm and Dairy

The Food and Drug Administration is considering updating those nutrition labels on food packaging. The last time nutrition labels were updated was the 1990s. Since then we’ve learned a lot about nutrition.

What’s changing?

According to an online summary on the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs website, the FDA is looking at: serving sizes of foods that can reasonably be consumed at one-eating occasions, dual-column labeling, updating, modifying and establishing certain RACCs. RACC stands for “reference amounts customarily consumed.

Why the change?

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From:Visualize Regulations: Regulation Data Like You’ve Never Seen It Before

by Steven Posnack

From reporters to academics, crunching numbers on regulations is sexy (especially during election time). So before I dive in to the details behind this post’s title, here’s a tip: you can’t count regulations that don’t get published. I take this concept and many others on in my post on the positives and pitfalls of available regulation datasets.

Riddle me this one my regulation counting colleagues: what if I told you your stats were wrong if you were using Reginfo.gov data?

Editor’s Note: CRE’s white paper “Carbon Capture and Sequestration: EPA’S Technology Availability Determinations Need to be Reproducible” is available here.

From: Inside EPA

An EPA data notice now under White House review could help EPA rebut critics’ claims that requiring new coal plants to use carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is illegal.

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Editor’s Note:  The text of the PRBA letter to OIRA is available here.

From: PRBA–The Rechargeable Battery Association

PHMSA Rule Would Align U.S. Rules with Stricter International Safety Regulations

Editor’s Note:  As Professor Sunstein explains, “Endorsed for more than three decades and by five presidents, cost-benefit analysis is here to stay.”

From: RegBlog/The Penn Program on Regulation

Jessica Bassett

Is the enjoyment of an after-dinner coffee worth being kept awake at night and being tired the next day? When we answer that kind of question and many others like it, we evaluate the pros and cons of our choices. In effect, we do a cost-benefit analysis. Although “cost-benefit analysis” may sound like a complex concept, it is actually a practice we engage in daily.

From: Overdrive

Safety fitness rule scheduled for January, as e-log, driver database rule still expected

James Jaillet

In its Semiannual Regulatory Agenda report published Jan. 7, the Department of Transportation included an entry on the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Safety Fitness Determination rule, which hints that a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will be published in January.

The rule would alter the agency’s Compliance, Safety, Accountability program and the data it uses to produce a carrier’s Safety Fitness Determination. Now, the agency only uses on-site compliance reviews to produce an overall safety rating for carriers.

From: Occupational Health and Safety

By Jerry Laws