A memorandum issued Oct. 26 by the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Cass Sunstein, instructs federal agencies to submit reports on the implementation of their retrospective review plans for periodically evaluating existing rules. The plans were required by President Obama's Jan. 18 Executive Order 13563, "Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review" (E.O. 13563), and thus far in the process, agencies have largely managed to keep their focus on their main mandate: protecting the public.

OMB Watch followed the development of the plans and launched a webpage with background information and our analysis of some of the final plans, which were released in late August. Our analysis showed that agencies worked to protect their primary missions while looking for cost savings. We hope agencies continue to do this when implementing their plans and conducting ongoing reviews and that they resist political and industry pressure to undo beneficial standards and safeguards.

The executive order instructed federal agencies to develop plans for the ongoing review of existing rules to identify those that are "outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome, and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal them." On June 14, OIRA issued a memorandum that provided guidelines for what agencies should include in the final plans.

The latest memo focuses on the implementation of the plans. It requires agencies to regularly report on the status of their retrospective review efforts and provides a suggested template for the reports. For the next year, agencies must submit reports in January, May, and September, and in January and July for each year thereafter. The template asks agencies to describe, quantify, and monetize anticipated savings, and the memo instructs agencies to “give high priority to those reforms that will promote economic growth, innovation, competitiveness, and/or job creation.”

As directed by OIRA, agencies solicited public comment when developing their plans. The vast majority of comments came from industry members and associations. The industry comments tended to recommend two types of revisions: eliminating or easing rules they saw as burdensome and standardizing or clarifying rules in which compliance was redundant or confusing. Many comments targeted specific rules in the pipeline that are unpopular with industry groups, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) clean air rules. The agencies rightfully declined to use the look-back process to overturn important protections or overhaul rules currently in process. Instead, the plans generally focused on ways to streamline and clarify rules and reduce paperwork burdens through measures like electronic reporting.

The memo indicates that OIRA is ensuring that agencies follow through with implementing their review plans.