Regulatory Transactions

From: Patent Docs

By David Boundy

The Patent Office recently requested comment on the paperwork that applicants submit during post-filing, pre-allowance patent prosecution (Patent Processing (Updating), 77 Fed. Reg. 16813, Mar. 22, 2012). This is a highly significant opportunity to seek reform of problematic PTO regulations, one that only comes once every three years. This comment period gives the public access to an oversight officer outside the PTO whose job is to help reduce costs and unnecessary paperwork burden associated with PTO regulations or MPEP guidance. The PTO has invited the public to challenge long-standing rules, and to seek reform.

Editor’s Note:  The following article highlights the importance of OMB review in avoiding needless, duplicative regulations.  As EPA explained, “the interim guidance is no longer necessary because EPA’s recent release of a dioxin oral reference dose (RfD) in the Agency’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) will be used to inform our dioxin-contaminated site cleanup decisions.”

From: Eureka-WildwoodPatch.com

EPA’s Withdrawal of Dioxin Guidelines Stumps Wildwood Officials

After U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s withdrawal of proposed interim Preliminary Remediation Goals for dioxin in soil, Wildwood representatives wonder what it means to settling local issues hovering over areas near the city’s former Superfund site.

OMB has announced that their review under Exexutive Order 12866 of the Department of Defense’s Interim Final Rule Defense Industrial Base (DIB) Cyber Security/Information Assurance (CS/IA) Activities has been extended.  Under long established principles of regulatory review, the President has authority to review regulatory actions.

As DOD explains the rule,

Editor’s Note:   The assertion below that OMB is responsible for delays in promulgation of safety rules contradicts a just-released GAO report discussing the length of OSHA rulemakings.   The GAO report, attached below, does not cite OMB as a source of delays nor is OMB mentioned in the list of suggestions for speeding rulemakings.  Any effort to reduce the length of rulemakings needs to take into account preserving the public protection and government accountability provisions in the “good government” laws which regulate the regulators.

Statement of Lisa Gilbert, Deputy Director, Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Division

From: The Hill

By Ben Geman

Natural-gas companies are taking concerns about looming Interior Department “fracking” regulations to the White House with efforts that include a meeting between a major producer and the Obama administration’s top regulatory official.

The recent meetings — which include trade groups and big players like Exxon and Anadarko Petroleum — are part of a wider industry push to ensure that regulation of the development method doesn’t create what the companies consider burdensome requirements that stymie production.

Editor’s Note:  The letter from the Chamber to OIRA is attached below.

From: Bloomberg/BNA

By Kevin P. McGowan

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is urging the Obama administration to compel the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to allow public input as the agency ponders issuing new enforcement guidance regarding employers’ use of criminal background and credit checks.

In an April 2 letter to Office of Management and Budget official Cass Sunstein, the chamber said EEOC’s potential guidances on both topics warrant OMB’s review for procedural and substantive reasons.