Regulatory Transactions

The attached letter from Winslow Sargeant, Chief Counsel for Advocacy to OIRA Administrator Sunstein provides SBA’s views in response to OMB’s “Request for Information on Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and In Conformity Assessment Activities.”  In the letter, Advocacy urged OMB to inlcude in Circular A-119 guidance on consideration of small entity interests through the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA).

The RFA requires federal agencies to assess the impact of their regulatory proposals on small entities and consider significant alternatives that are feasible, meet the agencies objectives, and minimize the burden on small entities. Advocacy recommends the following to enhance agency RFA compliance when using private technical standards in rulemaking:

Editor’s Note: Professor Rowell’s paper Partial Valuation and Cost-Benefit Analysis is attached below.

From: RegBlog

Arden Rowell | 05/30/12

Editor’s Note:  The complete letter from the Sunlight Foundation to Administrator Leppink, with cc names including OIRA Administrator Sunstein and Secretary Solis, is attached below.

From: Sunlight Foundation

The following letter was just sent to the Department of Labor, on behalf of Sunlight and a number of our allies, requesting that the DOL re-post materials online that they removed when they abandoned proposed regulations regarding child labor in agriculture.  As the letter says, no major administration decision should be accompanied by related materials’ disappearance from public view.

Letter-to-the-Department-of-Labor-on-Rulemaking-Transparency

From: Bloomberg

By Alan Levin and Andrew Zajac

A regulation exempting pilots atUnited Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) and FedEx Corp. (FDX) from new rules to combat fatigue will be reviewed after the U.S. government disclosed errors in its analysis of costs and benefits.

The Federal Aviation Administration, responding to a lawsuit by UPS pilots challenging the exemption, said in a courtfiling that it discovered unspecified errors behind its conclusion that the rule would be too costly for cargo airlines.

From: Shopfloor

Today several news outlets reported that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has sent the final Boiler MACT regulations over to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final review. It’s expected that OMB will finish the review in the next few weeks, and the EPA will issue the regulations in the next month or so.

The Boiler MACT regulation will only add to the already cumbersome regulatory burden facing manufacturers of all sizes. These regulations will hurt our ability to compete and stifle job creation. The Council for Industrial Boiler Owners estimates the regs will cost more than $14 billion to implement.

From: Bloomberg

By Andrew Zajac

Food companies, consumer groups and even a senior administration official are pressuring the White House to announce new food safety regulations that were mandated by law to be released more than four months ago.

Food companies such as General Mills Inc. and consumer groups are joining forces to lobby President Barack Obama’s administration to implement provisions of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which would increase oversight of the U.S. food chain.

Editor’s Note:  The article below discusses complex, detailed regulatory proposals with far-reaching and potentially unseen impacts throughout the economy.  Americans should be appreciative of OMB undertaking the painstaking (and apparently thankless) task of carefully reviewing FDA’s regulatory plans to ensure that they advance the public interest consistent with legal authorities.  OMB’s review of FDA regulations, a long-established basic exercise of Presidential authority and responsibility, is a prudent approach to avoiding the unexpected consequences of faulty “slam dunk” analyses.

From: The Washington Post

Food-safety rules in limbo at Office of Management and Budget

By Dina ElBoghdady

From: Patent Docs

By David Boundy

The Patent Office recently requested comment on the paperwork that applicants submit during post-filing, pre-allowance patent prosecution (Patent Processing (Updating), 77 Fed. Reg. 16813, Mar. 22, 2012). This is a highly significant opportunity to seek reform of problematic PTO regulations, one that only comes once every three years. This comment period gives the public access to an oversight officer outside the PTO whose job is to help reduce costs and unnecessary paperwork burden associated with PTO regulations or MPEP guidance. The PTO has invited the public to challenge long-standing rules, and to seek reform.

Editor’s Note:  The following article highlights the importance of OMB review in avoiding needless, duplicative regulations.  As EPA explained, “the interim guidance is no longer necessary because EPA’s recent release of a dioxin oral reference dose (RfD) in the Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) will be used to inform our dioxin-contaminated site cleanup decisions.”

From: Eureka-WildwoodPatch.com

EPA’s Withdrawal of Dioxin Guidelines Stumps Wildwood Officials

After U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s withdrawal of proposed interim Preliminary Remediation Goals for dioxin in soil, Wildwood representatives wonder what it means to settling local issues hovering over areas near the city’s former Superfund site.

OMB has announced that their review under Exexutive Order 12866 of the Department of Defense’s Interim Final Rule Defense Industrial Base (DIB) Cyber Security/Information Assurance (CS/IA) Activities has been extended.  Under long established principles of regulatory review, the President has authority to review regulatory actions.

As DOD explains the rule,