This week a sprinkling of interesting events flavors administrative law. Recess appointments litigation may get closer to sweetening the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) calendar. A court decision on timing of electronic filing soured one agency’s day, and provides lessons for others. Another court fed a bitter pill to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: OIRA
Monday Morning Regulatory Review – 4/29/13
Posted in Agency Authority, Constitutional Issues in Regulations, Judicial Review & Remedies, Regulatory ProcessBusy and long today: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), a hospital disproportionate share payment reduction proposed rule. OIRA may have a new Administrator who may or may not have the opportunity to review the rule –… Continue Reading
Monday Morning Regulatory Review – 2/11/13
Posted in Agency Authority, Judicial Review & Remedies, Regulatory ProcessA quiet week in regulations, punctuated by a few interesting events: The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit vacated the entire definition of “Vented hearth heater” and remanded in part the Department of Energy (DOE)’s ubiquitous Energy Conservation Program rule. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published their… Continue Reading
Monday Morning Regulatory Review – 1/21/13
Posted in Executive - OMB Review, Judicial Review & Remedies, Regulatory ProcessThis past week saw the January thaw from the holidays in regulatory movement. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) completed review on a number of substantial (if not economically significant) regulations, from arms exports to domestic gun control, and health care privacy. The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau… Continue Reading
First FDA Food Safety Proposed Rules Released: A Long, Long Road Ahead
Posted in Executive - OMB Review, Regulatory Flexibility & Small Business, Regulatory ProcessThe Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) completed review of the first of the long-awaited major Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) “first wave” proposed rules: Current Good Manufacturing Practice and Hazard Analysis and Risk-Based Preventive Controls… Continue Reading
Monday Morning Regulatory Review – 12/24/12
Posted in Judicial Review & Remedies, Regulatory ProcessNumerous regulations moved prior to year-end annual leave, which is not as surprising as it may seem – holiday planning sometimes invigorates action. Among the highlights, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed review on major Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Air Act (CAA) final rules on commercial boilers and Portland cement in response… Continue Reading
OMB Releases Fall 2012 Unified Agenda & Regulatory Plan: Meaning what?
Posted in Regulatory Flexibility & Small Business, Regulatory ProcessThe Obama Administration released a Unified Agenda and Regulatory Plan overnight December 22, 2012, after being missing in action for months and finally skipping the Spring 2012 version altogether, not releasing any instructions for the development of the Fall 2012 Unified Agenda, and with no announcement of the 2012 Fall Unified Agenda whatever. OMB’s lack… Continue Reading
Monday Morning Regulatory Review – 11/12/12
Posted in Executive - OMB Review, Judicial Review & RemediesOn Election Night, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) was reviewing 147 significant rules, proposed rules, and other notices. With the election over, the floodgates have now cracked. OMB’s docket has suddenly grown to 158, and we may expect to see many more rules – and perhaps… Continue Reading
Monday Morning Regulatory Review – 11/5/12
Posted in Judicial Review & Remedies, Regulatory ProcessThe election is tomorrow and regulatory activity seems to be in the calm before the storm. Congress further pressured the Administration on the lack of a Unified Agenda, but the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) did complete review on some very time-sensitive regulations, while the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced at least some compliance… Continue Reading
Monday Morning Regulatory Review – 10/8/12
Posted in Judicial Process, Regulatory ProcessPolitics is undeniably everywhere. Activity at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has become noticeably thin in the past month – the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has completed review on a paltry number of rules and notices. Congress is off seeking re-election, and even the courts do not appear to be… Continue Reading
Opinion: Five Suggestions to Improve Regulatory Transparency
Posted in Regulatory ProcessThis blog noted a number of sizable regulations in the pipeline several weeks ago – some published, some to be published, some just completing review by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and some compound sets of regulations not subject to that review. All exhibit transparency issues for even a practiced regulatory scrivener. Size… Continue Reading
Food Safety Statute & Delay: Litigating Congressional Deadlines
Posted in Executive - OMB Review, Judicial Review & Remedies, Regulatory Flexibility & Small Business, Regulatory ProcessFood safety – what could be more important? The FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA), signed into law on January 4, 2011, requires a significant regulatory shift by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FSMA imposed numerous deadlines for FDA to adopt regulations and those deadlines have passed into history without rules. Given those… Continue Reading
Monday Morning Regulatory Review – 9/10/12
Posted in Judicial Review & Remedies, Regulatory ProcessThe short post-Labor Day week is often quiet, but that understates how quiet last week was indeed. Judicial decisions were relatively sparse, but two cases pose interesting problems of agency press releases, and one case raised mootness in the political tumult. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed review of no significant rules, and… Continue Reading
Judicial Review & EO 12866 Regulatory Impact Analysis
Posted in Executive - OMB Review, Judicial Review & Remedies, Regulatory Flexibility & Small Business, Regulatory ProcessA common but little understood Administrative Procedure Act (APA) issue arose from last Monday’s Regulatory Review: How does an aggrieved business acquire APA judicial review of a rulemaking under Executive Order 12886 – the executive and inter-agency review performed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and its Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs… Continue Reading
OMB Missing in Action: Unified Agenda and Presidential Transition Planning
Posted in Regulatory ProcessAmid every Presidential campaign, some regulatory actions become the grist of the political mill, while others are laid to rest peacefully. The regulatory process – as a process – transcends the politics and some institutional “continuity of operations / continuity of government” steps need to be taken. So far, however, the Office of Management and… Continue Reading
Testing Paperwork Reduction Act Burdens: A Request for Public Information
Posted in Regulatory ProcessCass Sunstein, Administrator of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) instructed the executive departments and independent regulatory agencies on August 9, 2012, to test their information collection forms under the Paperwork Reduction Act before using them. The instruction addresses a long-standing complaint that the burdens calculated by… Continue Reading
Opinion: From EEOB to Langdell: A Change for Cass Sunstein
Posted in Executive - OMB ReviewThe White House and Harvard Law School announced the departure of Cass Sunstein from his role as Administrator of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and his new position running a new law school Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy. Numerous press reports focused on dissatisfaction… Continue Reading
An Invitation from OIRA Administrator: What Rules Should be Changed?
Posted in Regulatory ProcessThe Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) Administrator Cass Sunstein today issued an open invitation to tell him: How can we continue to streamline, simplify, and improve rules and regulations? Which rules should be eliminated, streamlined, or made more effective? How can we reduce reporting and paperwork burdens?… Continue Reading
GW Regulatory Studies Program Executive Course Announced
Posted in Regulatory ProcessFederal agencies completing sufficient, quality regulatory impact analyses in proposed and final rules just became a little easier. The George Washington University Regulatory Studies Program (RSC) has announced its Executive Course on Federal Regulatory Policy, Process, and Analysis, to be held October 3 – 4, 2012. Not only will this course be useful to agency… Continue Reading
Monday Morning Regulatory Review – 5/21/12
Posted in Judicial Review & Remedies, Regulatory ProcessThe Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office for Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) completed review of a number of high profile regulations last week, received a few new significant rules, and the NLRB recognized the quickie election injunction. Justice: Disabilities. The Department of Justice (DOJ) will extend until January 31, 2013, the compliance date… Continue Reading
Monday Morning Regulatory Review – 5/14/12
Posted in Executive - OMB Review, Judicial Review & RemediesRegulations: Petroleum Refineries: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) completed review of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s economically significant final rule to complete the Petroleum Refineries – New Source Performance Standards (NSPS)–Subparts J and Ja interim final rule. EPA has previously promulgated new source standards for refineries, then granted reconsideration of, and stayed, specific… Continue Reading
Obama Adds Three Requirements to Retroactive Review of Regulations
Posted in Executive - OMB ReviewPresident Barack Obama today added three new requirements to agency development of regulations and retrospective review of regulations in a new Executive Order: The new order supplements Executive Order 13563 by – Telling agencies to invite public suggestions and publicly releasing retrospective analyses of regulations and supporting data; Prioritizing initiatives that will produce significant quantifiable… Continue Reading
Guns, Ammo, Conflicting Agency Views & the Importance of OMB Review
Posted in Executive - OMB ReviewThis morning’s Wall Street Journal highlights an often overlooked, critical, confusing, and somewhat misnomered regulatory function: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review. Adam Entous and Evan Perez write that “U.S. homeland-security and law-enforcement agencies have objected to Obama administration proposals to relax export restrictions on high-powered firearms, threatening a centerpiece of the president’s trade… Continue Reading
President Obama’s International Regulatory Harmonization Initiative – An Opinion
Posted in Executive - OMB ReviewPresident Obama (aka POTUS) issued an Executive Order, Promoting International Regulatory Cooperation, on May 1, 2012, that increases the visibility of agencies’ interest in international regulatory harmonization, but does it really do more than reiterate platitudes? A careful review suggest that it reiterates many of the normative functions of the regulatory review process and, perhaps,… Continue Reading