The Office of Management and Budget has been directed by President Biden to develop a plan for agencies to review their existing regulations to determine if they embed social inequities. This joint panel session will explore the past effectiveness of retrospective regulatory reviews, how OMB envisions approaching the process, and potential methods for prioritizing reviews of a vast storehouse of regulations.
Background:
President Biden has directed agencies to review their existing regulations to determine if they embed social inequities. Directing agencies to conduct “retrospective reviews” of their regulations is not new; it has occurred many times over the years. But what is new is the focus of the Biden directive – a review of regulations’ impact on people, not the traditional financial impact, based on cost-benefit analyses, that often times focused on businesses. The question is: how might this best be done?
Per the president’s directive, the Office of Management and Budget is currently reviewing the existing regulatory development process and is developing guidance to agencies on how to implement the president’s directive. Separately, the Administrative Conference of the U.S. is sponsoring an academic research project to assess the effectiveness of past efforts to conduct retrospective reviews. Its goal is to offer recommendations on what approaches works best. Also, the Deloitte Center for Government Insights has developed an approach that may help agencies identify and prioritize which regulations and guidance to review. Are these three efforts complementary?
Discussants:
Background Reading: