Public Participation

06/27/2023

Would this letter, signed by 130 business groups, have been sent to the White House Chief of Staff in lieu of OIRA if OIRA had made a commitment to implement a regulatory budget?

NB  While  CRE continues to benefit from the emails we receive ( which we do not release to the public), we would like to remind our readership that they may also utilize the  ” Leave a Reply” mechanism which follows this post, bearing in mind our comments  above at 06/25/2023 )

The record is closed on some 4,000 submissions to OIRA on its proposal to revise Circular A-4 which sets forth the procedures for the economic evaluation of proposed rules. This is the stage where critical decisions are made and are done so understandably with little public participation.

Vintage OIRA…

 OIRA Discussion Forum

The Bottom Line: (1) An analysis conducted pursuant to OMB Circular A-4 should include a disclosure of the  “conventional ”  B/C ratio and (2) A demonstration of positive net benefits, however defined, should be a necessary but not a sufficient condition for the adoption of a proposed rule until which time the said rule is included in a regulatory budget. A regulatory budget compels the disclosure of the opportunity cost of a decision rule. See the Opportunity Cost of Neglect in Public Policy and here.  In addition there is ample evidence to suggest that decisions made pursuant to  bounded institutions, such as the regulatory budget, yield superior results relative to unbounded institutions. [ Jim Tozzi, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: Past, Present, and Future, 11 J. BENEFIT COST-ANALYSIS 1, 24–37 (2020);  Yair Listokin, Bounded Institutions, 124 YALE L.J. 336, 367 (2014) ] 

 See Vintage OIRA… for  a highlight of four  observations which describe the manifestation of  centralized regulatory review.

Serious consideration should be given to making sequential revisions to OMB Circular A-4, beginning with one limited to income distribution.[08 22 2023]

Summary:  A Proposal to Improve the Senior Executive Service