Abstracts and Reviews

H.R. 4162--THE REGULATORY INFORMATION PRESENTATION ACT -- HON. HELEN CHENOWETH
(Extension of Remarks - July 31, 1998)
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HON. HELEN CHENOWETH
in the House of Representatives
FRIDAY, JULY 31, 1998

• Mrs. CHENOWETH. Mr. Speaker, on June 25, 1998, I introduced H.R. 4162, a bill that will assist the American public, small business and anyone else interested in understanding how a decision was reached by the federal government when publishing regulations. My bill, entitled the `Regulatory Information Presentation Act,' is presented to the Congress for comments and to bring the issue for debate.
• In May of this year, the GAO released a report that points to the need for this legislation. The report, entitled `Regulatory Reform Agencies Could Improve Development, Documentation, and Clarity of Regulatory Economic Analyses,' should be read by all of my colleagues.
• Currently, the Administrative Procedure Act, provides only that a notice of proposed rulemaking must include the legal authority for a rule and `either the terms or substance of the proposed rule and/or description of the subjects and issues involved.' The provisions for final rule are even more general: They must `incorporate * * * a concise general statement of their basis and purpose.'
• The above APA provisions were adopted in 1966. Since then, there has been a demand for more rigorous analysis of proposed rules and increased `transparency' in the rulemaking process. In addition, since 1981, several Presidents have uniformly required OMB and the Federal agencies to address certain analytical issues in rulemakings, and particularly in major regulatory actions. The current Executive Order is E.O., 12866, which was signed by President Clinton in September 1993. The previous Executive Order 12291, was signed by President Reagan in February 1981. During this time, it has become routine for agencies to address the issues covered in those Executive Orders; however, the public rulemaking notices published in the Federal Register often do not reflect clearly the agency's rationale for the rulemaking action, and the agency discussions of proposed and final rules, contained in the Federal Register `Preamble' to the substance of the rule, are highly inconsistent in format and depth of information, making it difficult for the public to understand the basis for the rule and how particular issues were addressed. Often, such information might exist, but it is not summarized in the Federal Register notice, but is contained in an agency docket or other files, where it is generally inaccessible to all but the most knowledgeable and Washington-based individuals. In other words, the current rulemaking information presentation system is not `user-friendly' for the public.
• The proposed bill would address this matter by requiring the Office of the Federal Register to establish a uniform format for Federal agency rulemaking that would make clear how an agency addressed certain issues that are commonly addressed in rulemaking and which are covered in the regulatory Executive Order. If a particular issue was not relevant for an individual rulemaking, presumably the agency would simply put `not applicable' under that subject heading in the Federal Register notice.
• This should not make more work for agencies; in fact, it should reduce effort for all concerned, particularly our citizens.
• One provision would call for some additional effort, but it would be minimal. The `Public Notice' section of the proposed legislation (Sec. 4) would establish certain reporting requirements for agencies regarding number of rules promulgated and reviewed by OMB each year. The purpose of this is to allow Congress to track the level of regulatory activity from year to year.
• I urge my colleagues and the American public to support this legislation.

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