Archive for March, 2012
OMB Information Request: Federal Participation in Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities
Mar 29th
From: Federal Register
SUMMARY: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) invites interested parties to provide input on current issues regarding Federal agencies’ standards and conformity assessment related activities. Input is being sought to inform OMB’s consideration of whether and how to supplement Circular A-119 (Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities). In addition, OMB is announcing a public workshop at the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) on May 15, 2012. A complementary NIST workshop, “Conformity Assessment: Approaches and Best Practices,” will take place on April 11, 2012 to seek input from individuals on the planned update of Guidance on Federal Conformity Assessment Activities, issued by NIST in 2000. The NIST workshop was announced separately by NIST at http://www.nist.gov/director/sco/ca-workshop-2012.cfm (see also 77 FR 15719; March 16, 2012).
Chicago Tribune OpEd by OIRA Administrator Sunstein
Mar 23rd
Editor’s Note: The following Opinion article by Cass R. Sunstein appeared in the Chicago Tribune.
Why regulations are good — again
In “Moneyball,” author Michael Lewis celebrates the success of Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland Athletics, who worked with Paul DePodesta, his statistics-obsessed colleague, to bring the cash-starved Athletics into the top tier of baseball teams. His secret was to jettison the long-standing dogmas and intuitions of old baseball scouts and to use statistical data instead.
Hearing on: the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: Federal Regulations and Regulatory Reform under the Obama Administration
Mar 22nd
Editor’s Note: Attached below are the written statements from Chairman Smith and the witnesses at the March 21, 2012 hearing by the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law.
Statement of Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith
Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: Federal Regulations and Regulatory Reform under the Obama Administration
Mar 21st
From: Bastiat Institute
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for inviting me to testify today. My name is Richard Williams. I am an economist and the Director of Policy Studies at the Mercatus Center, a 501(c)(3) research, educational, and outreach organization affiliated with George Mason University.[1] For more than three decades, I have worked on rulemaking and regulatory analysis, first as an analyst at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), then as a supervisor of all social science analyses at FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. I also worked for a short time at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reviewing rules from other agencies.
Smarter Regulation: Reducing Cumulative Burdens
Mar 20th
From: The Office of Management and Budget
by Cass Sunstein
The Obama Administration has adopted a number of initiatives to promote smart, cost-justified regulation. On January 18, 2011, the President ordered an unprecedented government-review of existing rules. After a period of public comment, over two dozen agencies released ambitious reform plans, outlining hundreds of cost-saving reforms. A small fraction of those reforms, already finalized or formally proposed to the public, will save more than $10 billion over the next five years.
House Judiciary Committee Hearing on OIRA
Mar 19th
From: United State House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary
| Hearing on: the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: Federal Regulations and Regulatory Reform under the Obama AdministrationWednesday 3/21/2012 – 1:30 p.m.
2141 Rayburn House Office Building Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law By Direction of the Chairman |
Let the Sunshine In
Mar 13th
From: The White House
Posted by Cass Sunstein, Chris Vein
This week is Sunshine Week, a joint project of the American Society of News Editors and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Held in mid-March, Sunshine Week is a national initiative to promote discussion about the importance of open government and freedom of information.
The theme of this year’s Sunshine Week is “Put Sunshine in Your Government,” and so now is an appropriate time to reflect on the Obama Administration’s strong commitment to open government over the past three years, and more particularly to provide an update on implementation of the U.S. National Action Plan on Open Government.
Who Regulates the Regulators?
Mar 1st
From: Mercatus Center
Please join the Mercatus Center’s Regulation University and GMU School of Law professor Todd Zywicki for a course on who regulates government regulators.
Several key debates this year will focus on the economic impact of federal regulations. The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is pleased to offer a series of courses designed to help congressional staff better understand the regulatory process. Specifically, these classes will provide staff with the concepts and skills necessary to conduct informed regulatory oversight.
The second course in this series will examine the degree to which executive branch and independent agencies are subject to checks and balances on their regulatory authority, and explore: