President continues push for regulatory reviews

The Obama administration has issued an order requiring agencies to report to the Office of Management and Budget on their reviews of the long-standing and outdated regulations.

Under the Executive Order released May 10, agencies must submit draft reports on their retrospective reviews on regulations to OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Sept. 10. From then on, agencies have to submit them on the second Monday of January and also July. Agencies must then make final reports available to the public soon afterward.

The order also directs agencies to get the public more involved in the regulatory reviews.

The new order tells agencies to attend first to those initiatives that will produce significant savings or quantifiable reductions in paperwork burdens. They should give special attention to rules governing small businesses too.

In January 2011, President Barack Obama signed an executive order requiring the retrospective review of regulations to weed out the unnecessary ones. The administration wants regulations to meet their intended results. So Obama ordered periodic reviews.

The President’s Council of Economic Advisers also issued a report today on the “lookback” progress to date. It noted that agencies have identified more than 500 reforms, some of which could save more than $10 billion over the next five years.

“Smart rules can save lives and keep us safe, but there are some regulations that don’t make sense and cost too much,” President Obama said.