Review of Existing Regulations
Each year there are pleas for OMB to review the volumes of existing regulations; each year OMB puts a list  together for review, and each year nothing happens. In part because the effort is too labor intensive on OMB's part.

A more efficient solution would be for OMB to establish a process where the regulated community could petition the agencies to review an existing regulation, and OMB would actively  participate in decisions regarding the petitions. Since the Data Quality Act  has such a petition process, with standards and deadlines, it could be expanded  to address the problems of existing regulations.

Instead of starting a lengthy review process, OMB would simply issue a OMB Circular directing agencies to issue statements stating that stakeholders can use the DQA to petition for the review of existing regulations based upon data that is no longer accurate or representative of the "best available" information.

Return to OMB Papers on Centralized Regulatory Review