Lawmakers press regs office to clean up act

A perceived veil of secrecy at the White House’s powerful regulations office may be lifting as the administration works to clear a backlog of agency rules that have languished, sometimes for years, with little explanation.

Critics and proponents of federal regulation have for years chided the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for failing to provide details about its near-constant delays of new rules.

{mosads}The criticism reached fever pitch in recent days with the release of a new federal report that linked the delays to politics.

The report commissioned by the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), an independent agency that monitors federal rule-making, partly attributed delays in 2011 and 2012 to concerns about causing a controversy ahead of President Obama’s reelection.

But the report also revealed a shift toward shorter review periods for regulations over the past few months as watchdogs and congressional Democrats have ratcheted up their demands for long-promised public health and safety protections.

Between March and mid-September, the number of agency rules under review for more than a year was nearly cut in half, and reviews lasting more than six months fell by 55 percent between January and September, the report found.

“There has been progress, but we need to know what the reasons were for delays and what can be done to expedite the rules that are still pending,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).

By law, the OIRA is supposed to complete its reviews within 90 days, though some analyses can be extended. But some controversial regulations have languished at the office for years, often without any official notice as to why.

In a statement to The Hill, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which houses the regulations office, defended its review process as in line with both federal statute and the policies of previous administrations.

The administration completed reviews of hundreds of regulations between November 2011 and the 2012 election. That included more than 80 significant rules — those with an annual economic impact of $100 million or more.

The recent shift toward shorter reviews coincides with the installment of new regulatory czar Howard Shelanski. During confirmation hearings for the post, Shelanski told lawmakers that speeding up the review process would rank among his highest priorities.

Sam Batkins, the regulatory policy director for the conservative think tank American Action Forum, said Shelanski “seems to be keeping his word about removing the backlog of regulation.”

However, Batkins questioned whether the delays were ever rooted at the OIRA, and suggested they might have come at the behest of the president’s Domestic Policy Council or others at the White House.

“I can’t imagine one or two officials at OIRA unilaterally decided to slow down the pace of regulation before Election Day,” he said.

In addition to the finding that the administration’s “political sensitivities” reached new levels in 2012, the ACUS report also revealed that the OIRA had started to institute a series of informal review processes before rules were formally sent for interagency analysis. These included so-called “Mother-may-I meetings,” where agency officials were required to brief OIRA staffers before formally submitting their regulations.

Among the regulatory work delayed were rules implementing ObamaCare, new limits on workers’ exposure to a cancer-causing dust and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) efforts on gasoline and waterways.

For liberals and conservatives alike, those revelations were a confirmation of their warnings about delay and opacity in the rulemaking process.

“The failure to meet deadlines is clearly a coordinated effort across agencies to keep the American people in the dark,” Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said in a written statement to The Hill.

“In this case, particularly delaying from January 2012 until after President Obama’s reelection, shows that OIRA covered for the EPA’s onslaught of expensive regulations. It’s really scary to think what they’ll drop on our economy after the 2014 elections and as Obama is on his way out,” added Vitter, who is the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Despite the “regular updates” that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) has been receiving from the OIRA and the OMB, a spokesman said the report was troubling.

In an statement to The Hill, Whitehouse spokesman Seth Larson said that “allegations that OIRA is highly responsive to political concerns, routinely conducts ‘off the clock’ informal reviews of proposed rules, and demands that agencies ask permission before submitting rules for review are certainly troubling, and I expect they will be the subject of discussion in future conversations between the Senator and OIRA/OMB.” 

Blumenthal, who chairs the Judiciary subcommittee on Oversight, said that he plans to hold hearings on regulatory delays in the New Year. 

“Shining a spotlight” on the delays would help convince the administration to get in line, he said.

For the time being, it’s difficult to tell whether OIRA’s delay tactics have truly ended, outsiders say.

“Agency culture changes slowly so it’s very hard to know,” said Celia Wexler, the senior Washington representative with the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“Certainly the fact that rules are getting out faster is a good thing but … there have been situations even with Mr. Shelanski where agencies seem to have suddenly withdrawn rules. So we don’t know what’s happening.”