Mid-term in any presidency Washington is abuzz with seminars on the accomplishments of the incumbent Administration. With respect to regulatory pacesetters, we believe the following fulfill the criterion of a pacesetter:
Regulatory Budget
It has been nearly forty years since the Carter Administration proposed the first regulatory budget; the Trump Administration actually put one in place. Many believe the 2-for-1 component of the Trump Regulatory Budget is integral to the concept of a regulatory budget, it need not be.
Exploiting the Strengths of the Data Quality Act
Passage of the Data(Information) Quality Act is one of the most substantial grant of authorities to centralized regulatory review in its half-century history. This time bomb has been ticking for twenty years and the Trump Administration has unleashed it.
Capitalizing on the Latent Strengths of Congressional Review Act
The CRA has been a sleeper for years and has historically been called to duty when the same party controls both houses of Congress and the Presidency. The Trump Administration has developed a program to use it on a 24/7 basis to address regulatory “dark matter” including guidance and policy documents.
OIRA Review of IRS Tax Rules
OIRA has closed the loophole that allowed IRS to escape centralized regulatory review. Uniformed critics of the process argue that OIRA does not have experts with a detailed knowledge of the tax code; what they miss is that the OIRA review is considerably broader than that of IRS in that the former reviews the economic merits of a proposal as well as its relationship to other federal programs.
Improving specific regulations is important but long term reform takes place through lasting procedural changes as was the case with the Iconic Executive Order 12291.
