[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 93 (Monday, May 14, 2012)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 28469-28470]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-11798]
[[Page 28467]]
Vol. 77
Monday,
No. 93
May 14, 2012
Part V
The President
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Executive Order 13610--Identifying and Reducing Regulatory Burdens
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 93 / Monday, May 14, 2012 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 28469]]
Executive Order 13610 of May 10, 2012
Identifying and Reducing Regulatory Burdens
By the authority vested in me as President by the
Constitution and the laws of the United States of
America, and in order to modernize our regulatory
system and to reduce unjustified regulatory burdens and
costs, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. Regulations play an indispensable
role in protecting public health, welfare, safety, and
our environment, but they can also impose significant
burdens and costs. During challenging economic times,
we should be especially careful not to impose
unjustified regulatory requirements. For this reason,
it is particularly important for agencies to conduct
retrospective analyses of existing rules to examine
whether they remain justified and whether they should
be modified or streamlined in light of changed
circumstances, including the rise of new technologies.
Executive Order 13563 of January 18, 2011 (Improving
Regulation and Regulatory Review), states that our
regulatory system ``must measure, and seek to improve,
the actual results of regulatory requirements.'' To
promote this goal, that Executive Order requires
agencies not merely to conduct a single exercise, but
to engage in ``periodic review of existing significant
regulations.'' Pursuant to section 6(b) of that
Executive Order, agencies are required to develop
retrospective review plans to review existing
significant regulations in order to ``determine whether
any such regulations should be modified, streamlined,
expanded, or repealed.'' The purpose of this
requirement is to ``make the agency's regulatory
program more effective or less burdensome in achieving
the regulatory objectives.''
In response to Executive Order 13563, agencies have
developed and made available for public comment
retrospective review plans that identify over five
hundred initiatives. A small fraction of those
initiatives, already finalized or formally proposed to
the public, are anticipated to eliminate billions of
dollars in regulatory costs and tens of millions of
hours in annual paperwork burdens. Significantly larger
savings are anticipated as the plans are implemented
and as action is taken on additional initiatives.
As a matter of longstanding practice and to satisfy
statutory obligations, many agencies engaged in
periodic review of existing regulations prior to the
issuance of Executive Order 13563. But further steps
should be taken, consistent with law, agency resources,
and regulatory priorities, to promote public
participation in retrospective review, to modernize our
regulatory system, and to institutionalize regular
assessment of significant regulations.
Sec. 2. Public Participation in Retrospective Review.
Members of the public, including those directly and
indirectly affected by regulations, as well as State,
local, and tribal governments, have important
information about the actual effects of existing
regulations. For this reason, and consistent with
Executive Order 13563, agencies shall invite, on a
regular basis (to be determined by the agency head in
consultation with the Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)), public suggestions about
regulations in need of retrospective review and about
appropriate modifications to such regulations. To
promote an open exchange of information, retrospective
analyses of regulations, including supporting data,
shall be released to the public online wherever
practicable.
Sec. 3. Setting Priorities. In implementing and
improving their retrospective review plans, and in
considering retrospective review suggestions from the
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public, agencies shall give priority, consistent with
law, to those initiatives that will produce significant
quantifiable monetary savings or significant
quantifiable reductions in paperwork burdens while
protecting public health, welfare, safety, and our
environment. To the extent practicable and permitted by
law, agencies shall also give special consideration to
initiatives that would reduce unjustified regulatory
burdens or simplify or harmonize regulatory
requirements imposed on small businesses. Consistent
with Executive Order 13563 and Executive Order 12866 of
September 30, 1993 (Regulatory Planning and Review),
agencies shall give consideration to the cumulative
effects of their own regulations, including cumulative
burdens, and shall to the extent practicable and
consistent with law give priority to reforms that would
make significant progress in reducing those burdens
while protecting public health, welfare, safety, and
our environment.
Sec. 4. Accountability. Agencies shall regularly report
on the status of their retrospective review efforts to
OIRA. Agency reports should describe progress,
anticipated accomplishments, and proposed timelines for
relevant actions, with an emphasis on the priorities
described in section 3 of this order. Agencies shall
submit draft reports to OIRA on September 10, 2012, and
on the second Monday of January and July for each year
thereafter, unless directed otherwise through
subsequent guidance from OIRA. Agencies shall make
final reports available to the public within a
reasonable period (not to exceed three weeks from the
date of submission of draft reports to OIRA).
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) For purposes of this
order, ``agency'' means any authority of the United
States that is an ``agency'' under 44 U.S.C. 3502(1),
other than those considered to be independent
regulatory agencies, as defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(5).
(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to
impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to a department or agency, or the head
thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(c) This order shall be implemented consistent with
applicable law and subject to the availability of
appropriations.
(d) This order is not intended to, and does not,
create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural,
enforceable at law or in equity by any party against
the United States, its departments, agencies, or
entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any
other person.
(Presidential Sig.)
THE WHITE HOUSE,
May 10, 2012.
[FR Doc. 2012-11798
Filed 5-11-12; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3295-F2-P