New Bill Would Subject Regulations to Quadrennial Legislative Review
A new bill proposed in the US House of Representatives would require the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to compile a report every four years recommending certain regulatory reforms to replace "outmoded, duplicative, ineffective or excessively burdensome" regulations.
The bill, the Regulatory Reform Act of 2012, would also require OIRA to compile a "list of recommendations to consolidate, modify, simplify or repeal" the regulations identified in its report, along with the justifications for going so.
OIRA is an Executive Branch agency responsible for reviewing regulations and guidance promulgated by federal agencies, including the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
OIRA would be allowed to scour FDA's agency regulations, guidance, action plans, reports, analysis and reviews in order to formulate its recommendations, and would be mandated to release a preliminary version of its report in the Federal Register 60 days before publication to allow public comment.
The Regulatory Reform Act notes it intends for the President to formulate an action plan to carry out "all or part of the recommendations contained in the most recent Federal Regulatory Reform Report prepared by OIRA" within 120 days of the report's publication in the Federal Register.
Unlike previous regulatory reform efforts, which tend to originate from within the Executive Branch and focus on how agencies can change certain regulations themselves, the Regulatory Reform Act would seek to change such regulations by legislation.
"Not later than 120 days after the submission of a Federal Regulatory Reform Report under subsection (a), the President shall transmit to Congress a special message to carry out all or part of the recommendations contained in that Federal Regulatory Reform Report," says the bill. "The President shall include with that special message a bill that would carry out the recommendations."
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