Against the backdrop of two Executive Orders on federal
agency rulemaking, and at a critical moment when legislation is pending to
require independent federal agencies to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of
regulations, the U.S. Senate confirmed
by voice vote Howard Shelanski to be the next Administrator of the Office of
Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Mr. Shelanski
is the Director of the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission, a
position he has held since 2012. He is currently on leave from the Georgetown University Law
Center
At
his nomination hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs Committee, Mr. Shelanski
noted that OIRA plays an
essential role in developing and overseeing the implementation of
Government-wide policies on regulation, information collection, information
quality and technology, statistical standards, scientific evidence, and
privacy. He believes that public
involvement and transparency in regulation is critically important as we tackle
the complex issues of regulation both domestically and globally.
Asked by Committee Chairman
Tom Carper (D-DE) to list his top priorities as OIRA Administrator, he listed
three. The first is to ensure that regulatory review occurs in a timely manner
and that it is a high quality review. Second, he intends to form good working
relationships with agency heads and with Congress, as well as with public
stakeholders. Third, OIRA will conduct retrospective reviews
and look backs of adopted regulations even as the Office moves forward
with new regulations. OIRA will look back to ensure that the regulations
already on the books are not overly
burdensome and are doing what they were intended to do. The Administrator added
that, regarding retrospective review, the primary duty is with the agency heads
since they best know their regulations. To Chairman Carper’s query if such
retrospective review will be ongoing, he replied that it would be.