OIRA Watch

Professor Rena Steinzor, a talented and well respected member of the legal community and a member of the friendly opposition who we hold in high regard, has published an article titled “The Case for Abolishing Centralized White House Regulatory Review”  in the inaugural issue of Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law.

Hats off to the Professor for being the first author to state unequivocally that centralized regulatory review began in the Nixon Administration. Unlike other authors she did not say it was a modest effort or a pilot for the future but  stated  that  the Nixon White House was the first to control the regulatory state by exercising OMB control over agency regulations.

A number of articles are appearing in the US literature regarding the  alleged overreach of OMB’s centralized review of regulations as carried out by OIRA, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

CRE visited with the UK Regulatory Policy Committee, an agency vested with regulatory oversight responsibilities, to provide a basis for a comparison of the UK  mechanism  for centralized regulatory review  with that of the US.

The following articles, printed in the attachments below, are a result of the meeting:

• Centralized Regulatory Review in the UK:  They Said it Couldn’t be Done  

• Regulatory Delivery: A Breath of Fresh Air for Business

 CRE had the good fortune of visiting  UK  officials related to centralized regulatory review. One purpose of the visit was to address criticisms from some groups in the US that the OIRA lead process was too stringent, placed too high an emphasis on cost/benefit analyses and resulted in extensive delays.

 The mission was hosted by Mr. Donald Macrae a former regulatory official in the UK.

 As a result of the visit, the UK is going to provide CRE with some extremely informative statements on its regulatory process which we shall post on this  site.

In the attached letter to OMB, Commissioner O’ Malia of the CFTC has requested OMB review of a  Commission’s regulation.

 OMB not only has the constitutional authority to conduct such a review but in a number of instances Congress has passed specific legislation that directs OMB review of the regulations of independent agencies. To this end CRE has written a step- by-step method to guide  OMB is the discharge of its responsibilities.

The essence of the CRE approach is:

 Proposed CRE Program for OMB Review of Independent Agency Regulations . . . . .

 Professor Rena Steinzor, a noted administrative law expert, and a member of the influential Center for Progressive Reform has written an article in the forthcoming inaugural issue of  University of Michigan’s Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law; the article is entitled “The Case for Abolishing Centralized White House Regulatory Review” .

 The editor anticipated such an event some thirty years ago upon his departure from OMB as reported in the article entitled The Twenty Years War  published in the National Journal in 1983 reporting on his note  to the federal regulatory community.

Oops!  The link to the Pavillion website in the article that follows is no longer operable. For some reason EPA has changed the url to: http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/wy/pavillion/.  CRE, as regulatory watchdog, is providing this link to the public and it is incumbent upon EPA to also provide it to the public.

Editor’s Note: The Statement below discusses EPA’s decision to apply the “highly influential scientific assessment” designation to a fracking-related study. The EPA study may be found here, http://www.epa.gov/region8/superfund/wy/pavillion/index.htm. The term “highly influential scientific assessment” is from OMB’s “Final Information Quality Bulletin for Peer Review” one of the DQA’s binding implementing documents.

From: Upstream Online

The US Interior Department has submitted its proposed set of rules regulating hydraulic fracturing to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, bringing a federal framework for the controversial drilling practice one step closer to reality.

Luke Johnson  

OMB listed the proposed rules as “received” on Wednesday on its website.

Industry groups voiced strong opposition to the proposed regulations when a draft of the proposal leaked earlier this month.

Groups like the American Petroleum Institute and the Independent Petroleum Association of America took particular issue with a proposal requiring disclosures of chemicals used in fracking.

The Opportunities

      President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness: 2011 Year End Report

      Administrative Law Review: Special Edition- OIRA

President’s Job Council

Retrospective review of rules and their impact

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) should provide guidance on how agencies should: 1) prioritize the review of rules; and 2) develop and implement a system for future retrospective regulatory reviews.

Independent regulatory commission regulatory review

With the support of the Council, the President also issued Executive Order 13579 in July 2011 that called on the independent regulatory commissions and agencies (IRCs) to follow the principles of the President’s January executive order and produce their own retrospective review plans.

 2011 marked the thirtieth anniversary of OIRA. During the past year OIRA has received considerable attention, probably more than it has in a number of years.

However no one event was more significant than the symposium sponsored by the  George Washington Regulatory Studies  Center.

 All former Administrators and Deputy Administrators were asked to describe their experience at OIRA. Fortunately the Administrative Law Review published their presentations in a landmark edition, Volume 63, Special Edition.

 The table of contents of the aforementioned Administrative Law Review is attached hereto.