Regulatory Transactions

From: Safety + Health

Washington — The Department of Labor’s updated regulatory agenda for fall 2017, released Dec. 14, contains fewer changes for OSHA than the previous agenda, published in July. The Mine Safety and Health Administration, meanwhile, is seeking input on potential alterations to a rule intended to reduce worker exposure to coal dust.

In addition, the introduction to the fall agenda touts a “3-for-1” plan, in which “agencies plan to finalize three deregulatory actions for every new regulatory action in 2018.” The agenda, typically issued twice a year, details the status and projected dates for all regulations.

From: Scientific American

Watch for These 7 U.S. Science Regulations/Deregulations in 2018

These changes could have serious consequences for health, food and safety

By Dina Fine Maron

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From: SeafoodSource

From: FDA Food Safety Magazine

Source: FDA

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The challenges of successful implementation include regional differences in growing conditions and practices across the country, and that the produce industry has never before had this kind of FDA oversight.

The PSN does two things:

1. It establishes regionally based policy and regulatory experts throughout the country, making them uniquely suited to address the issues specific to the states they’re supporting.
2. It also places these experts, from two very different FDA offices, within one team. The network combines the regulatory expertise from the FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA) with the policy and science expertise from the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN).

From: Center for Immigration Studies

By David North

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All of this shows the power of tradition in the U.S. government. The Paperwork Reduction Act requires periodic reviews of government forms, which is commendable. But this form itself should have been eliminated, so no further reviews would be needed.

What is the form in question? It is the ancient N-300, and it relates to a century or so ago, when aliens often filed a form indicating that they were intending to become citizens, (i.e., first papers) before they got around to actually applying for citizenship (second papers).