Ex-Labor Official Now Second-in-Charge at Regulatory Agency
Jul 5th
From: Bloomberg Law
Cheryl Bolen
Paul Ray, who had been serving as counselor to Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta , is now the second-highest regulatory official within the Office of Management and Budget, an agency official told Bloomberg Government.
Ray is the new associate administrator at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the agency within OMB that reviews all significant federal regulations and enforces the administration’s regulatory policies. He started about a month ago, another official said.
Read Complete Article [paywall]
Trade associations call on Office of Management and Budget for cost-benefit analysis in federal departments
Jun 29th
From: Daily Energy Insider
A collective 101 business trade associations signed onto a joint letter last week addressed to Neomi Rao, administrator of the Office Information and Regulatory Affairs within Management and Budget (OMB), to make a case for cost-benefit balancing in federal offices.
“We believe the time has come for EPA to reexamine its statutory interpretations, and unless prohibited by statute, implement its regulatory statutes through cost-benefit balancing,” the organizations wrote. “Agencies must prepare cost-benefit analyses to support their most significant regulations, and to the extent permitted by law, not regulate unless the benefits justify the costs and the selected regulatory option maximizes net benefits to society.”
OIRA Data Call for the Fall 2018 Regulatory Plan & Unified Agenda, and FY 2019 Regulatory Cost Allowances
Jun 22nd
Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from OIRA’s June 18, 2018 Memorandum to Regulatory Policy Officers and Executive Directors of Agencies. The complete document is available here. Read the history of regulatory budgeting here.
From: OIRA
Proposed Cost Allowance Submissions under EO 13771 for Fiscal Year 2019
Section 3(d) ofEO 13771 provides that the Director of OMB shall identify a regulatory cost allowance for each agency for FY 2019. The Order further provides that “[n ]o regulations exceeding the agency’s total incremental cost allowance will be permitted in that fiscal year, unless required by law or approved in writing by the Director.”
White House Meets Stakeholders on Small Business Health Rule
Jun 14th
From: Bloomberg News
***
Final review by OIRA can take anywhere from weeks to months, or lead to a rejection that gets sent back to the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration. The administration has fast-tracked this rulemaking as part of an attempt to provide Americans with relief from the ACA.
***
Officials who meet with groups can’t share information about the final rule, but advocates say it’s important to have their voices heard in each step of the rule-making.
Canada and United States sign Memorandum of Understanding for regulatory cooperation
Jun 4th
From: Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat
WASHINGTON, DC, June 4, 2018 /CNW/ – Canada and the United States share a joint commitment to strong regulatory cooperation, promoting economic competitiveness and maintaining and improving high standards for health, safety and environmental protection.
Today, the Honourable Scott Brison, President of the Treasury Board of Canada, and Peter Wallace, Secretary of the Treasury Board, joined with the Honorable Mick Mulvaney, Director of the US Office of Management and Budget, and the Honorable Neomi Rao, US Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator, to reaffirm this commitment by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC).
Trump Admin. Plans to Keep Cutting Burdensome Regulations
May 23rd
From: The Washington Free Beacon
Federal regulatory czar expects ‘strongly deregulatory year’
BY: Charles Fain Lehman
***
According to Rao, the new deregulatory agenda focuses on several key areas. Infrastructure, a key priority of the administration, is front and center, with much proposed deregulation focusing on easing environmental burdens on new infrastructure projects. These include regulatory changes under the Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act, as well a proposal from the nuclear regulatory commission to ease the licensing process for new nuclear reactors.
OMB To Give Agencies New Guidelines for Guidance Docs: Source
May 21st
From: Bloomberg
The Office of Management and Budget is set to publish as early as this week more specific directions to agencies about issuing guidance documents, according to a source familiar with the discussions.
Guidance documents, including letters, bulletins, and other statements, are legally non-binding but are often used in agency enforcement actions. Critics see guidance as a way for agencies to circumvent the lengthier and more cumbersome formal rulemaking process.
Advancing Responsible Regulatory Reform: The Deregulatory Agenda
May 10th
Editor’s Note: See also The Coming of the Regulatory Budget.
From: The White House Blog
By: Neomi Rao
***
Projecting progress toward reducing regulatory burdens, the agenda reflects an ongoing commitment to eliminate two regulatory actions for each new regulation and to establish a regulatory budget that reduces costs across the government, as directed by President Trump in Executive Order 13771. In the fall, OIRA will publish an accounting of the cost savings and deregulation achieved by agencies.
Tozzi backs bolstering existing data laws over EPA ‘secret science’ rule
May 7th
From: Inside EPA
Former White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) regulatory review chief Jim Tozzi is opposing EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s proposed “secret science” rule to bar use of data in decisions if it is not publicly available, countering that a more effective way to improve transparency would be to bolster two existing data laws.
Tozzi, now head of the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness that independently analyzes federal rules, told a May 2 American Bar Association (ABA) regulatory discussion that EPA should pursue its transparency goals through the Data Quality Act (DQA) and Data Access Act (DAA) rather than creating a complex new regulatory regime under a recently proposed rule.