OIRA, congressional oversight on agenda at ABA Administrative Law & Regulatory Practice Institute
Mar 10th
From: American Bar Association
WASHINGTON, March 7, 2016 — As the Obama administration prepares to wind down, final regulatory actions and congressional oversight will be at the forefront of the American Bar Association’s 12th Annual Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Institute, March 14-15 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.
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Program highlights include:
Making All Levels of Government More Efficient and Effective Through Retrospective Review
Mar 9th
From: The White House
by Howard Shelanski
Summary: Today, agencies released the first of their biannual lookback reports for 2016, identifying more than 50 new retrospective initiatives.
Since President Obama called on Federal agencies in 2011 to initiate an unprecedented government-wide review of rules on the books, agencies have achieved significant results by streamlining, revising, and eliminating many existing regulations. The regulatory lookback effort to date has achieved an estimated $28 billion in net 5-year savings. Moreover, these efforts significantly benefit States, local and tribal governments, businesses, and the American people by making all levels of government more efficient and effective.
Implementation of the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015
Mar 1st
From: OMB Memorandum M- 16-06
Overview
On November 2, 2015, the President signed into law the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (the 2015 Act) (Sec. 701 of Public Law 114-74), which further amended the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 (the Inflation Adjustment Act) (Public Law 101-410), to improve the effectiveness of civil monetary penalties and to maintain their deterrent effect.
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Completing the catch-up adjustment
Evidence and Evaluation
Feb 23rd
From: The Office of Management and Budget
The Administration is committed to a broad-based set of activities to better integrate evidence and rigorous evaluation in budget, management, operational, and policy decisions, including through: (1) making better use of data already collected by government agencies; (2) promoting the use of high-quality, low-cost evaluations and rapid, iterative experimentation in addition to larger evaluations examining long-term outcomes; (3) adopting more evidence-based structures for grant programs; and (4) building agency evaluation evidence-building capacity and developing tools to better communicate what works.
New Regulatory Policy Development: OMB’s Revised Guidance to Federal Agencies on Standards and Conformity Assessment
Feb 17th
by Jeff Weiss
On January 27, 2016, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published its long-awaited revision of Circular A-119 on “Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities.” The new policy was developed through an interagency process that took into account public input received during two open comment periods since 2012. It is meant to reflect and incorporate lessons learned and experience gained in the nearly two decades since the Circular was last revised in 1998. These include developments in international trade, technology, and U.S. regulatory policy (including with respect to retrospective review, open government, and international regulatory cooperation).
In Memoriam: Justice Antonin Scalia, Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States, 1972–1974
Feb 16th
Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice
Associate Justice Antonin Scalia was born in Trenton, New Jersey, March 11, 1936. He married Maureen McCarthy and has nine children – Ann Forrest, Eugene, John Francis, Catherine Elisabeth, Mary Clare, Paul David, Matthew, Christopher James, and Margaret Jane. He received his A.B. from Georgetown University and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, and his LL.B. from Harvard Law School, and was a Sheldon Fellow of Harvard University from 1960–1961. Scalia was in private practice in Cleveland, Ohio from 1961–1967, a Professor of Law at the University of Virginia from 1967–1971, and a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago from 1977–1982, and a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University and Stanford University. He was chairman of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law, 1981–1982, and its Conference of Section Chairmen, 1982–1983. He served the federal government as General Counsel of the Office of Telecommunications Policy from 1971–1972, Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 1972–1974, and Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel from 1974–1977. He was appointed Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1982. President Reagan nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat September 26, 1986.
ACUS Committee Fixer of Regulatory Problems
Feb 11th
From: Bloomberg BNA | Daily Report for Executives
By Cheryl Bolen
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The ACUS was first established in 1968 as the premier forum for fixing administrative processes, but was disbanded in 1995 over a lack of funding. So when problems started to fester, Frisby, who was then chairman of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, took action.
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Focus on Rulemaking
A lot of what the committee does is focus on issues of agency rulemaking and presidential review of agency rulemaking through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Bull said.
OIRA Wish for 2016: An Orderly Regulatory Process
Feb 2nd
From: BNA
By Cheryl Bolen
Jan. 29 — Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator Howard Shelanski has a deceptively simple wish for 2016: to maintain regular order and finalize the administration’s top regulatory priorities under standard procedures.
Shelanski knows full well how challenging that will be this year, the last of President Barack Obama’s administration. He has already anticipated the onslaught of last-minute rules by agency heads and White House policy officials desperate to bolster their legacies.
Revision of OMB Circular No. A-119, “Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities”
Jan 29th
CRE’s white paper discussing the revised federal standards policy, An Updated Look at the Federal Policies Governing How Agencies Use Voluntary Consensus Standards in Regulatory, Procurement, and Science Documents is here. The Final Revision of OMB Circular A-119 is available here. OMB’s Federal Register notice is here. CRE’s white paper on federal regulatory preference for consensus and market-driven consortia standards is here. Below are excerpts from Revised A-119.
Revision of OMB Circular A-119. OMB is revising this Circular in light of developments in regulation, standards, and conformity assessment since the Circular was last revised in 1998. These revisions reflect the experience gained by U.S. agencies in implementing the Circular since 1998, and concluding and implementing U.S. trade agreements, as well as developments in domestic and international regulatory, standards, and conformity assessment policies.
White House Calls On Federal Agencies To Avoid “Midnight Regulations”
Jan 28th
Editor’s Note: If OIRA is going to be able to resist agency pressure for midnight regulations, it will need a strong institutional base.
From: NFIB