Administrative Procedure Act (1946)
OMB MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES (1971)
(Instituting the Quality of Life Review)
Executive Order 12291 (1981) Federal Regulation (Reagan)
Each year Forbes Magazine publishes the Forbes 400— a list of the 400 richest people in America. The list is inspiring because it demonstrates how hard work and ingenuity combined with the world’s greatest democracy can lead to the betterment of all Americans. The list provides a social purpose by encouraging similar actions by other private sector entrepreneurs.
Forbes could be equally effective by publishing the names of the 400 leading social entrepreneurs in America. A social entrepreneur uses the same tools used by private sector entrepreneurs to start a business enterprise but applies them to the delivery of goods and services to the American public by governmental and non-governmental organizations.
Guidance, or more precisely the term regulatory guidance, is in play as a result of a number of actions that have taken place or about to take place.
Consider the following:
Administrative Conference of the United States
The path breaking report prepared by ACUS and its consideration by its governing body.
Department of Justice
The recent issuance of a directive by the Attorney General to DOJ employees on guidance.
Center for Regulatory Effectiveness
CRE issued a statement regarding the flux in the term guidance and received several important replies:
Editor’s Note: The data quality petition by Democracy Forward is available here.
From: The Washington Post
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Since its enactment in 2000, the little-known and rarely litigated lnformation Quality Act has mandated that information issued to the public or sponsored by federal agencies be “accurate, reliable and unbiased.”
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An architect of the law, James J. Tozzi, a former OMB official and founder of the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness, said the appeals court in Washington — where Democracy Forward is based — in particular has left the door open for a challenge to hold the Treasury Department accountable for tax cut claims.
The editor of this publication is often asked to name several of the most significant surprises which he observed over the past half century working on issues dealing with the administrative state.
Outside the wonky world of regulations the resultant answer would hardly ring an audible chime with the general populace. Nonetheless the question is challenging and is recast to identify regulatory “dumbfounders”. Answers change with the passage of time and rebranding the question as the identification of “dumbfounders” is appropriate because we were in search of a non-existent noun in lieu of a verb to designate a specific event that designates a surprise.
What can be anything more American than traditional jazz? Traditional jazz, a musical form which emanated in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in New Orleans, is characterized by a musical texture of a melody, countermelody and improvisation served with a rich plate of spirituals.
Administrative law addresses some of the most pressing issues of the day, including the separation of power among our respective branches of government; an issue which is of immense interest to our citizenry.
