Posts in "OMB" category

[News] Regulatory reform in the United States: An update

Last year we covered Executive Order 13,563 (“Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review”) outlining the Obama administration’s regulatory strategy. One of the prongs of that strategy was the retrospective analysis of existing rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome.

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Obama’s new Executive Order – Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review

Today, President Obama signed an Executive Order (the text of which is available here) outlining his regulatory strategy. This Executive Order “is supplemental to and reaffirms the principles, structures, and definitions governing contemporary regulatory review that were established in Executive Order 12866 of September 30, 1993” that was signed by Bill Clinton.

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[Reports] OIRA Draft 2009 Report on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations

The OIRA Draft 2009 Report to Congress on the Benefits and Costs of Federal Regulations is available here. According to the summary provided in the Federal Register Notice of Availability and Request for Comments (which is also available on that same website), the draft report is divided into four chapters. Chapter I examines the benefits and costs of major federal regulations issued in fiscal year 2008 and summarizes the benefits and costs of major regulations issued between September 1998 and 2008. It also discusses regulatory impacts on state, local, and tribal governments, small business, wages, and economic growth. Chapter II examines trends in regulation since OMB began to compile benefit and cost estimates records in 1981. Chapter III provides an update on implementation of the Information Quality Act. Chapter IV summarizes agency compliance with the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.

 

[News] Cass Sunstein confirmed to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

The Senate confirmed Professor Cass Sunstein to be Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, on September 10, 2009 (see New York Times).  He was approved 57 to 40, with the vast majority of his support coming from Democrats. The roll call is available here.