[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 229 (Friday, November 27, 2020)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 76003]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-26022]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

45 CFR Subtitle A


Request for Information (RFI) on Redundant, Overlapping, or 
Inconsistent Regulations

AGENCY: Immediate Office of the Secretary, Department of Health and 
Human Services (HHS).

ACTION: Request for information.

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SUMMARY: The Immediate Office of the Secretary (IOS) is issuing this 
Request for Information (RFI) to assist the Department in identifying 
redundant, overlapping, or inconsistent regulations.

DATES: To be considered, responses and comments must be received 
electronically, at the email address provided below, no later than 
11:59 p.m., Eastern on December 21, 2020, and will be reviewed on a 
rolling basis during this period.

ADDRESSES: Responses must be submitted electronically, and should be 
addressed to [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Chief of Staff for the Department has 
issued a policy statement entitled ``Avoiding Duplicative Regulation.'' 
In the policy statement, the Chief of Staff noted that redundant, 
overlapping, or inconsistent regulations undermine agency and 
regulatory goals by injecting uncertainty, creating potentially 
conflicting regulatory regimes, and increasing transaction costs with 
no discernible benefit to the public. The policy statement also placed 
new requirements on HHS agencies to avoid duplicative regulation. This 
Request for Information seeks input from the public on how HHS may 
improve its regulations, to include regulations issued by any HHS 
office or agency. HHS plans to use comments from the public to improve 
existing regulations, and eliminate unnecessary or duplicative 
regulations through future exercise of rulemaking authority. 
Specifically, responders may address one or more of the topics below:
    1. Any HHS regulations that are redundant with other HHS 
regulations, and how HHS could best eliminate such redundancies.
    2. Any HHS regulations that are inconsistent with other HHS 
regulations, and how HHS could best resolve any inconsistencies.
    3. Any HHS regulations that overlap with federal regulation issued 
by another HHS office or agency in a manner that creates confusion or 
uncertainty, and how HHS could best address potential problems caused 
by such overlapping HHS regulations.
    4. Challenges faced by you, your company or others when trying to 
comply with redundant, overlapping, or inconsistent HHS regulations and 
the impact or result of facing such challenges.
    Collection of Information Requirements: This document does not 
impose information collection requirements, that is, reporting, 
recordkeeping or third-party disclosure requirements. However, this 
document does contain a general solicitation of comments in the form of 
a request for information. In accordance with implementing regulations 
of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), specifically 5 CFR 
1320.3(h)(4), this general solicitation is exempt from the PRA. Facts 
or opinions submitted in response to general solicitations of comments 
from the public, published in the Federal Register or other 
publications, regardless of the form or format thereof, provided that 
no person is required to supply specific information pertaining to the 
commenter other than that necessary for self-identification, as a 
condition of the agency's full consideration, are not generally 
considered information collections and therefore not subject to the 
PRA.

Brian Harrison,
Chief of Staff, Department of Health and Human Services.
[FR Doc. 2020-26022 Filed 11-24-20; 8:45 am]
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