Archive for February, 2018
Court tosses challenge to Trump’s two-for-one regulatory order
Feb 27th
From: The Hill
By Lydia Wheeler
A federal district court judge on Monday dismissed a challenge to President Trump’s executive order directing federal agency heads to eliminate two rules for every new rule proposed.
U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Randolph Moss said Public Citizen, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Communication Workers of America, AFL-CIO failed to prove their members will be harmed by the president’s orders, which is a burden of proof required to bring a lawsuit.
Regulatory Scorecard: A Federalist Society Conversation with Administrator Neomi Rao
Feb 16th
From: Federalist Society/Regulatory Transparency Project
In 2017, the U.S. experienced a dramatic shift in regulatory policy at the federal level. This shift is attributable to a new presidential administration that has made regulatory reform a priority. This priority is evidenced by numerous regulatory initiatives including Executive Order 13771 that directs agencies, among other things, to repeal two regulations for every new regulation promulgated. The Administration recently reported that it had far exceeded this goal by instead, repealing twenty-two regulations for every new regulation created. However, debate remains over how the new administration’s regulatory efforts, in its totality, should be scored thus far. We are pleased to have OIRA Administrator Neomi Rao as our Free Lunch podcast guest to share her perspective on that question.
Good Government through Good Governance: Developing a cross-sector, “national constituency” in support of OIRA
Feb 14th
Editor’s Note: See, Inside Washington on Reinventing Governance.
From: Inside Washington Publishers | Special Report: Reinventing Governance
Former OMB official sees broader support for OIRA flowing from Trump’s regulatory budget
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“[C]entralized regulatory review would not have survived for nearly a half century without a cadre, however small, of individuals who were willing to place their career on the line because the mere existence of centralized regulatory review was at that time repugnant to a number of the leaders of the administrative state who frequently advocated retaliatory measures,” Tozzi writes.
Trump proposes funding hike for regulatory shop
Feb 13th
From: Greenwire
Maxine Joselow, E&E News reporter
Amid a push for deregulation, President Trump is seeking a funding increase for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
The administration’s full fiscal 2019 budget proposes $11 million for OIRA, up $1 million from a White House estimate of recent funding levels but consistent with the administration’s fiscal 2018 budget proposal.
Read Complete Article [paywall]
Nafta’s Red Tape Fight Hits a Snag
Feb 12th
From: Bloomberg
By Josh Wingrove and Eric Martin
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Canada proposes adding cooperation council into trade pact
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Observers say that may backfire with shift of powers to USTR
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Canada wants to roll the existing U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council into the North American Free Trade Agreement, a pact Donald Trump is threatening to quit. Advocates of the Canadian proposal liked the idea of entrenching stronger harmonization of rules on things like food safety and drones while also adding Mexico into the mix — and doing so would also boost another Trump goal of cutting red tape for businesses.
Trump’s Regulatory Czar Defends Tip Pool Rule’s Transparency
Feb 9th
From: Bloomberg/BNA
By Ben Penn
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Analysis Expected in Final Rule
Rao, speaking on a call hosted by the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project, used her opening remarks to emphasize OIRA’s commitment to giving the public access to cost-benefits data during regulatory and deregulatory actions.
In response to Bloomberg Law’s query on how her comments square with the DOL’s December proposed rule to permit tip sharing, she said, “We would expect to see the full quantitative analysis in the final rule, and hope that the comments can shed some light on what the scope of that is.”
Compliance into the Weeds-Episode 68-End of Regulatory Guidance?
Feb 5th
From: JDSupra
In this episode Matt Kelly and myself take a deep dive into the weeds of the recent remarks by Neomi Rao, head of the Office for Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), the Administration’s top regulatory review office outlining ambitious plans for more deregulation in 2018 – including efforts to sweep independent federal agencies into her purview and to crack down on the “sub-regulatory” guidance that corporate compliance professionals consume all the time. The talk was given before the Brookings Institute and she touted the 2 for 1 kill order for new regulations the Administration heralded last year and claimed that over 1500 planned regulations had been pulled from review.