[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 93 (Monday, May 14, 2012)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 28469-28470]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-11798]



[[Page 28467]]

Vol. 77

Monday,

No. 93

May 14, 2012

Part V





The President





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Executive Order 13610--Identifying and Reducing Regulatory Burdens
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  Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 93 / Monday, May 14, 2012 / 
Presidential Documents  

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 Title 3--
 The President

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                Executive Order 13610 of May 10, 2012

                
Identifying and Reducing Regulatory Burdens

                By the authority vested in me as President by the 
                Constitution and the laws of the United States of 
                America, and in order to modernize our regulatory 
                system and to reduce unjustified regulatory burdens and 
                costs, it is hereby ordered as follows:

                Section 1. Policy. Regulations play an indispensable 
                role in protecting public health, welfare, safety, and 
                our environment, but they can also impose significant 
                burdens and costs. During challenging economic times, 
                we should be especially careful not to impose 
                unjustified regulatory requirements. For this reason, 
                it is particularly important for agencies to conduct 
                retrospective analyses of existing rules to examine 
                whether they remain justified and whether they should 
                be modified or streamlined in light of changed 
                circumstances, including the rise of new technologies.

                Executive Order 13563 of January 18, 2011 (Improving 
                Regulation and Regulatory Review), states that our 
                regulatory system ``must measure, and seek to improve, 
                the actual results of regulatory requirements.'' To 
                promote this goal, that Executive Order requires 
                agencies not merely to conduct a single exercise, but 
                to engage in ``periodic review of existing significant 
                regulations.'' Pursuant to section 6(b) of that 
                Executive Order, agencies are required to develop 
                retrospective review plans to review existing 
                significant regulations in order to ``determine whether 
                any such regulations should be modified, streamlined, 
                expanded, or repealed.'' The purpose of this 
                requirement is to ``make the agency's regulatory 
                program more effective or less burdensome in achieving 
                the regulatory objectives.''

                In response to Executive Order 13563, agencies have 
                developed and made available for public comment 
                retrospective review plans that identify over five 
                hundred initiatives. A small fraction of those 
                initiatives, already finalized or formally proposed to 
                the public, are anticipated to eliminate billions of 
                dollars in regulatory costs and tens of millions of 
                hours in annual paperwork burdens. Significantly larger 
                savings are anticipated as the plans are implemented 
                and as action is taken on additional initiatives.

                As a matter of longstanding practice and to satisfy 
                statutory obligations, many agencies engaged in 
                periodic review of existing regulations prior to the 
                issuance of Executive Order 13563. But further steps 
                should be taken, consistent with law, agency resources, 
                and regulatory priorities, to promote public 
                participation in retrospective review, to modernize our 
                regulatory system, and to institutionalize regular 
                assessment of significant regulations.

                Sec. 2. Public Participation in Retrospective Review. 
                Members of the public, including those directly and 
                indirectly affected by regulations, as well as State, 
                local, and tribal governments, have important 
                information about the actual effects of existing 
                regulations. For this reason, and consistent with 
                Executive Order 13563, agencies shall invite, on a 
                regular basis (to be determined by the agency head in 
                consultation with the Office of Information and 
                Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)), public suggestions about 
                regulations in need of retrospective review and about 
                appropriate modifications to such regulations. To 
                promote an open exchange of information, retrospective 
                analyses of regulations, including supporting data, 
                shall be released to the public online wherever 
                practicable.

                Sec. 3. Setting Priorities. In implementing and 
                improving their retrospective review plans, and in 
                considering retrospective review suggestions from the

[[Page 28470]]

                public, agencies shall give priority, consistent with 
                law, to those initiatives that will produce significant 
                quantifiable monetary savings or significant 
                quantifiable reductions in paperwork burdens while 
                protecting public health, welfare, safety, and our 
                environment. To the extent practicable and permitted by 
                law, agencies shall also give special consideration to 
                initiatives that would reduce unjustified regulatory 
                burdens or simplify or harmonize regulatory 
                requirements imposed on small businesses. Consistent 
                with Executive Order 13563 and Executive Order 12866 of 
                September 30, 1993 (Regulatory Planning and Review), 
                agencies shall give consideration to the cumulative 
                effects of their own regulations, including cumulative 
                burdens, and shall to the extent practicable and 
                consistent with law give priority to reforms that would 
                make significant progress in reducing those burdens 
                while protecting public health, welfare, safety, and 
                our environment.

                Sec. 4. Accountability. Agencies shall regularly report 
                on the status of their retrospective review efforts to 
                OIRA. Agency reports should describe progress, 
                anticipated accomplishments, and proposed timelines for 
                relevant actions, with an emphasis on the priorities 
                described in section 3 of this order. Agencies shall 
                submit draft reports to OIRA on September 10, 2012, and 
                on the second Monday of January and July for each year 
                thereafter, unless directed otherwise through 
                subsequent guidance from OIRA. Agencies shall make 
                final reports available to the public within a 
                reasonable period (not to exceed three weeks from the 
                date of submission of draft reports to OIRA).

                Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) For purposes of this 
                order, ``agency'' means any authority of the United 
                States that is an ``agency'' under 44 U.S.C. 3502(1), 
                other than those considered to be independent 
                regulatory agencies, as defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(5).

                    (b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to 
                impair or otherwise affect:

(i) the authority granted by law to a department or agency, or the head 
thereof; or

(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

                    (c) This order shall be implemented consistent with 
                applicable law and subject to the availability of 
                appropriations.
                    (d) This order is not intended to, and does not, 
                create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, 
                enforceable at law or in equity by any party against 
                the United States, its departments, agencies, or 
                entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any 
                other person.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    May 10, 2012.

[FR Doc. 2012-11798
Filed 5-11-12; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3295-F2-P