[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 61 (Wednesday, March 30, 2011)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 17572-17573]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-7468]


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 Proposed Rules
                                                 Federal Register
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 This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of 
 the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these 
 notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in 
 the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.
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  Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 61 / Wednesday, March 30, 2011 / 
Proposed Rules  

[[Page 17572]]



DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

5 CFR Chapter XXI

12 CFR Chapters I, V, XV, and XVIII

17 CFR Chapter IV

19 CFR Chapter I

26 CFR Chapter I

27 CFR Chapter I

31 CFR Subtitle A and Chapters I, II, IV through VIII, IX, and X

48 CFR Chapter 10


Reducing Regulatory Burden; Retrospective Review Under E.O. 13563

AGENCY: Department of the Treasury.

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: On January 18, 2011, the President issued Executive Order 
13563, ``Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' which sets forth 
principles and requirements designed to promote public participation, 
improve integration and innovation, increase flexibility, ensure 
scientific integrity, and increase retrospective analysis of existing 
rules. The Department of the Treasury, in its effort to improve 
Treasury regulations, invites interested members of the public to 
submit comments on its preliminary plan to review retrospectively its 
regulations and to submit suggestions as to which Treasury regulations 
should be modified, expanded, streamlined, or repealed.

DATES: Comment due date: April 29, 2011.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments regarding 
this notice according to the instructions below. All submissions must 
refer to the document title. Treasury encourages the early submission 
of comments.
    Electronic Submission of Comments. Interested persons must submit 
comments electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
http://www.regulations.gov. Electronic submission of comments allows 
the commenter maximum time to prepare and submit a comment, ensures 
timely receipt, and enables the Department to make them available to 
the public. Comments submitted electronically through the http://www.regulations.gov Web site can be viewed by other commenters and 
interested members of the public.
    Commenters should follow the instructions provided on that site to 
submit comments electronically.
    Public Inspection of Comments. All properly submitted comments will 
be available for inspection and downloading at http://www.regulations.gov.
    Additional Instructions. In general, comments received, including 
attachments and other supporting materials, are part of the public 
record and are immediately available to the public. Do not enclose any 
information in your comment or supporting materials that you consider 
confidential or inappropriate for public disclosure.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Office of the Assistant General 
Counsel for General Law, Ethics, and Regulation at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background--Executive Order 13563

    On January 18, 2011, the President signed Executive Order 13563, 
``Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' which outlines the 
following guiding principles:
     Consistent with law, agencies must consider costs and 
benefits of its regulations and choose the least burdensome path.
     The regulatory process must be transparent and include 
public participation.
     Agencies must attempt to coordinate, simplify, and 
harmonize regulations to reduce costs and promote certainty for 
businesses and the public.
     Agencies must consider approaches that maintain freedom of 
choice and flexibility, including disclosure of relevant information to 
the public.
     Regulations must be guided by objective scientific 
evidence.
    Section 6 of Executive Order 13563 emphasizes the importance of 
retrospective analysis of rules and requires agencies to ``develop and 
submit to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs a 
preliminary plan, consistent with law and its resources and regulatory 
priorities, under which the agency will periodically review its 
existing significant regulations to determine whether any such 
regulations should be modified, expanded, streamlined, or repealed so 
as to make the agency's regulatory program more effective or less 
burdensome in achieving the regulatory objectives.''

Request for Comments

    The Department of the Treasury, in implementing Executive Order 
13563, invites public comments on two areas of interest. First, 
comments are invited concerning the development of its preliminary plan 
to periodically review existing significant regulations. Second, 
Treasury invites comments about which regulations should be modified, 
expanded, streamlined, or repealed in order to make the Department's 
regulations more effective or less burdensome or both. Although 
Treasury welcomes general comments, in addressing these two areas, 
commenters are encouraged to respond to the questions below:
    1. What factors should Treasury consider in selecting and 
prioritizing existing rules for retrospective review?
    2. Which regulatory programs are working well and should serve as a 
model for other Treasury programs?
    3. Are there Treasury rules that are outdated or contrary to 
recently enacted statutes, or otherwise in need of updating?
    4. In which Treasury regulations are there opportunities to use new 
information technologies to improve or ease burdens?
    5. How often should Treasury review its existing regulations?
    6. Are there any Treasury rules that duplicate requirements or 
contain conflicting requirements, either with another Treasury bureau 
or another Federal agency? If so, please identify and explain how these 
duplicative or conflicting requirements could be modified.
    7. How can Treasury improve public outreach and increase public 
participation in the rulemaking process?
    8. Please provide any additional information that will help the 
Department to develop and implement

[[Page 17573]]

its preliminary plan for retrospective review of regulations.
    The Department advises that this notice and request for comments is 
issued for information and policy development purposes. Although the 
Department encourages responses to this notice, such comments do not 
bind the Department to taking any further actions related to the 
submission.

George W. Madison,
General Counsel, Department of the Treasury.
[FR Doc. 2011-7468 Filed 3-29-11; 8:45 am]
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