Regulatory Transactions

Editor’s Note: HM Government’s Regulatory Policy Committee (RPC) is an advisory non-departmental public body of the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills that provides “the government with external, independent scrutiny of new regulatory and deregulatory proposals.” The complete Guidance is available here. The seven recommendations below provide excellent guidance to all regulators—and their supervisors.

1. Don’t presume regulation is the answer
2. Take time and effort to consider all the options
3. Make sure you have substantive evidence
4. Produce reliable estimates of costs and benefits
5. Assess non-monetary impacts thoroughly
6. Explain and present results clearly

From: PennEnergy

By Nick Snow, OGJ Washington Editor

The White House Office of Management and Budget may recommend that the US Securities and Exchange Commission propose revised requirements for publicly traded US oil, gas, and mining firms to disclose payments to foreign governments.

Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act mandates that such disclosures be required, OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs said in a notice. US District Court for the District of Columbia vacated and remanded the SEC’s previous attempt to implement the rule in July 2013, it noted (OGJ Online, July 2, 2013).

From: E&E Publishing/Greenwire

Amanda Peterka and Jean Chemnick, E&E reporters

The White House on Friday released its latest regulatory agenda, a sweeping plan that includes rules on power plants, renewable fuels, ozone pollution, Clean Water Act jurisdiction and disclosure of payments by oil and gas companies.

The spring issue of the biannual “Unified Agenda of Federal and Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions” details both short- and long-term plans for every agency in the government.

The most notable goals include timelines for the release of greenhouse gas emission standards, proposed 2015 renewable fuel standard targets, a controversial stream protection rule, crude-by-rail safety standards, and methane and hydraulic fracturing regulations.

From: FederalNewsRadio.com 1500 AM

By Jason Miller

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The National Archives and Records Administration’s Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) has been tackling this problem of over-classification since 2010.

John Fitzpatrick, the director of ISOO, said a group of experts have been working on a new rule to create governmentwide standards for labeling unclassified data, called controlled unclassified information (CUI).

Editor’s Note: It seems like the midnight regulations are starting early.

From: The Hill

By Ben Goad and Timothy Cama

Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are racing to churn out new regulations before the clock runs out on President Obama’s term.

White House records show there have been a flurry of meetings in recent weeks between administration officials and outside groups trying to influence the final language of EPA rules under construction. 

The activity is evidence that Obama’s push to combat global warming with regulation has entered a critical phase, with officials hammering out the details of rules that carry major implications for the environment and the economy.

From: IP Watchdog

Written by Gene Quinn

Earlier today the Federal Trade Commission issued a second Federal Register Notice containing the revised information requests for its study on patent assertion entities (PAEs). The Commission vote approving the second Federal Register Notice was 5-0. The Notice is styled as a submission to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) because under federal law federal agencies must obtain approval from OMB for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor. 

From: Affirmative Action and OFCCP Law Advisor

OFCCP Sends Proposed Comp Data Collection Tool to OMB

By Mickey Silberman

As we’ve been sharing, OFCCP is working to develop a pay data collection tool for federal contractors in response to President Obama’s recent Presidential Memorandum on Pay Discrimination. We have learned OFCCP sent its proposed regulation for this tool to OMB yesterday for review; it is not yet, however, available to the public. Once we obtain more details we will provide an update so make sure to stay tuned.

Editor’s Note: The governmentwide financial data standards disussed below will need to be consistent with OMB’s other data quality standards.

From: Government Executive

By John Kamensky | IBM Center for the Business of Government

Legislation recently passed by Congress will have far-reaching effects on federal agencies and hundreds of thousands of recipient of federal funds – grantees, contractors, universities, nonprofits, states and localities.

From: International Business Times

By Meagan Clark

Energy companies and the firms that make the rail cars carrying the flow of crude oil and other products from America’s shale boom are separated by a mere 1/8 of an inch.

That’s the added thickness in the walls of the steel rail cars that the manufacturers say is needed to achieve safe standards. The oil and gas industry argues that the current 7/16 of an inch thickness is adequate.

The debate is important because the U.S. is currently hammering out guidelines that will eventually set the new national standards for transporting hazardous cargo by rail.