White House Regulatory Delays Persist
Oct. 22, 2015
White House Regulatory Delays Persist
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Regulations delayed at the White House have experienced a combined 4,136 days of delay, according to data from Public Citizen’s www.SafeguardsDelayed.org. The interactive website shines a spotlight on the problem of regulatory delay at the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
From air pollution standards to worker protections to food safety rules, all significant regulations proposed by federal agencies must be reviewed by OIRA before they can be implemented. An executive order directs the agency to spend no more than 90 days reviewing a rule drafted by an agency, with the possibility of a single 30-day extension. But 23 rules have lingered for more than 120 days. The following five rules have seen the lengthiest delays:
- Participation by religious organizations in USAID programs (1,533 days)
- Child nutrition program integrity (549 days)
- Mandatory inspection of certain fish, including catfish and catfish products (510 days)
- Nondiscrimination on the basis of disability: accessibility of web information and services of state and local governments (470 days)
- General and plastic surgery devices: restriction of sunlamp products (386 days)
“Chronic delays have become a persistent feature of the OIRA review process,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. “Faster rulemaking could have saved thousands of lives, prevented thousands of injuries and kept millions of Americans from getting sick. The situation is improved from the historic delays of a few years ago, but far too many rules remain delayed for far too long.”
For the latest figures on White House regulatory delays, visit www.SafeguardsDelayed.org
###