[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 15 (Monday, January 26, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Pages 4435-4436]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-1639]


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EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

The White House Office


Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

January 20, 2009, Washington, DC.
From: Rahm Emanuel, Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff
Subject: Regulatory Review

    President Obama has asked me to communicate to each of you his plan 
for managing the Federal regulatory process at the beginning of his 
Administration. It is important that President Obama's appointees and 
designees have the opportunity to review and approve any new or pending 
regulations. Therefore, at the direction of the President, I am 
requesting that you immediately take the following steps:
    1. Subject to any exceptions the Director or Acting Director of the 
Office of Management and Budget (the ``OMB Director'') allows for 
emergency situations or other urgent circumstances relating to health, 
safety, environmental, financial, or national security matters, or 
otherwise, no proposed or final regulation should be sent to the Office 
of the Federal Register (the ``OFR'') for publication unless and until 
it has been reviewed and approved by a department or agency head 
appointed or designated by the President after noon on January 20, 
2009, or in the case of the Department of Defense, the Secretary of 
Defense. The department or agency head may delegate this review and 
approval power to any other person so appointed or designated by the 
President, consistent with applicable law.
    2. Withdraw from the OFR all proposed or final regulations that 
have not been published in the Federal Register so that they can be 
reviewed and approved by a department or agency head as described in 
paragraph 1. This withdrawal is subject to the exceptions described in 
paragraph 1 and must be conducted consistent with OFR procedures.
    3. Consider extending for 60 days the effective date of regulations 
that have been published in the Federal Register but not yet taken 
effect, subject to the exceptions described in paragraph 1, for the 
purpose of reviewing questions of law and policy raised by those

[[Page 4436]]

regulations. Where such an extension is made for this purpose, you 
should immediately reopen the notice-and-comment period for 30 days to 
allow interested parties to provide comments about issues of law and 
policy raised by those rules. Following the 60-day extension:
    a. For those rules that raise no substantial questions of law or 
policy, no further action needs to be taken; and
    b. For those rules that raise substantial questions of law or 
policy, agencies should notify the OMB Director and take appropriate 
further action.
    4. The requested actions set forth in paragraphs 1-3 do not apply 
to any regulations subject to statutory or judicial deadlines. Please 
immediately notify the OMB Director of any such regulations.
    5. Notify the OMB Director promptly of any regulations that you 
believe should not be subject to the directives in paragraphs 1-3 
because they affect critical health, safety, environmental, financial, 
or national security functions of the department or agency, or for some 
other reason. The OMB Director will review all such notifications and 
determine whether an exception is appropriate.
    6. Continue in all instances to comply with any applicable 
Executive Orders concerning regulatory management.
    As used in this memorandum, ``regulation'' has the meaning set 
forth in section 3(e) of Executive Order 12866 of September 30, 1993, 
as amended; this memorandum covers ``any substantive action by an 
agency (normally published in the Federal Register) that promulgates or 
is expected to lead to the promulgation of a final rule or regulation, 
including notices of inquiry, advance notices of proposed rulemaking, 
and notices of proposed rulemaking.''
    This regulatory review will be implemented by the OMB Director, and 
communications regarding any matters pertaining to this review should 
be addressed to that official.
    The OMB Director is authorized and directed to publish this 
memorandum in the Federal Register.

 [FR Doc. E9-1639 Filed 1-23-09; 8:45 am]
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