Regulatory Transactions

From: Mercatus Center/George Mason University

Hester Peirce, Robert Greene

The Federal Reserve’s performance as a regulator in the years leading up to the 2007–08 crisis earned it widespread criticism. In the wake of the crisis, its fate as a regulator was uncertain as Congress considered regulatory reforms. Some reform proposals would have substantially diminished the Federal Reserve’s regulatory role, but the financial reform ultimately signed into law in July 2010—Dodd- Frank—instead increased the Federal Reserve’s regulatory power.

From: Agri-Pulse

USDA appears to be readying itself to implement the Flexible Feedstocks Program (FFP) to sell surplus domestic sugar supplies to ethanol producers.

A rule to implement the FFP has been submitted by USDA to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which has 90 days to review the measure.

The program was authorized by the 2008 Farm Bill to help avoid forfeitures to the Commodity Credit Corporation. Never before used, the program authorizes USDA to purchase as much U.S.-produced sugar as necessary to maintain market prices above support levels, and then sell the excess sugar to bioenergy producers for processing into ethanol.

From: Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP

Mark Anstoetter and Madeleine McDonough

According to news sources, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) removed some provisions from the regulatory implementation package that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Analysis of documents submitted to the rulemaking docket apparently reveals that the following requirements were removed from the draft rules submitted for OMB review: (i) company programs to monitor the environment for pathogens, (ii) finished product testing for pathogens, (iii) the assumption that pathogens found on food contact materials are also in the food, (iv) a supplier approval and verification program, (v) company review of consumer safety complaints, and (vi) FDA authority to copy company records. See Food Politics and Law360, March 25, 2013.

From: Shopfloor

Chip Yost

Earlier this week Governor Mary Fallin, of Oklahoma,  wrote Jeffrey Zients, the Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)  about the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) proposed rule on hydraulic fracturing on Federal and Indian lands.  Governor Fallin sent Mr. Zients a copy of a study done by the Oklahoma City University’s Economic Research & Policy Institute on the “Individual Well Costs from Proposed Rules Changes to Oil and Natural Gas Operations on BLM Lands” The study was commissioned by Devon Energy. The Governor encouraged OMB to review this study and reconsider the proposed rule.

Editor’s Note:  The same President, Richard Nixon, who established EPA was also responsible for establishing centralized Presidential review of environmental regulations.  Throughout EPA’s history, White House/OMB review of environmental regulations EPA regulations has been an appropriate exercise of the President’s Article 2 executive powers.

Lisa Heinzerling ¹