OMB Watch Analysis Raises Questions about Changes to Regulatory Process that Go into Effect Today

 

PRESS RELEASE
-For Immediate Release-
July 24, 2007

Contact: Brian Gumm, 202-234-8494, bgumm@ombwatch.org

OMB Watch Analysis Raises Questions about Changes to Regulatory Process that Go into Effect Today

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2007—On Jan. 18, 2007, President Bush issued Executive Order 13422, which amends Executive Order 12866, Regulatory Planning and Review. The same day, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued its Final Bulletin for Agency Good Guidance Practices. The two executive directives work in concert to alter the ways federal agencies develop and enforce regulations.

As of today, agencies are to be in full compliance with the provisions of the executive order and the Final Bulletin. Agencies and the White House spent the first half of 2007 preparing and implementing aspects of the directives. But despite great attention paid by Congress, the media and the public, little new information has surfaced. The American people remain in the dark about how these changes will influence the way our government operates.

A new OMB Watch analysis — E.O. 13422: Unanswered and Unaccountable — briefly reiterates our concerns with the executive order and the Final Bulletin and identifies the many questions that remain. The analysis also recaps the congressional scrutiny the changes have received since January and describes the legislative solutions moving through Congress.

"It will be difficult to measure the effects of the changes since so much of the regulatory — and now guidance document — review process is not documented and disclosed," said Rick Melberth, Director of Regulatory Policy at OMB Watch. "Many of the fears expressed by critics could be alleviated if the White House, OIRA and the agencies provide sufficient transparency."

The new analysis is available at /files/regs/PDFs/EO13422UnansweredandUnaccountable.pdf.

OMB Watch first scrutinized the executive order and the Final Bulletin in its March 2007 report A Failure to Govern: Bush's Attack on the Regulatory Process, available at /files/regs/PDFs/FailuretoGovern.pdf.

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