http://worldcat.org/entity/work/id/23767161

Regulatory reform : changes made to agencies' rules are not always clearly documented : report to the Committee on Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate

The number of federal regulations and their effect on the U.S. economy have grown dramatically during the past 30 years. Accompanying this growth has been concern about how federal agencies develop their regulations. Executive Order 12866, which was issued in September 1993, outlines a process by which proposed significant rules of regulatory agencies are to be reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). One of the purposes of the executive order is to make the federal rulemaking process "more accessible and open to the public." This report focuses on the regulatory review process at OIRA and at four agencies: the Departments of Housing and Urban Development and Transportation, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency. GAO discusses whether (1) the regulatory agencies had identified for the public the substantive changes made to their regulations between the draft submitted to OIRA and the regulatory actions later announced, (2) the regulatory agencies had identified for the public the changes made to their regulations at the suggestion or recommendation of OIRA, and (3) OIRA had made available to the public all documents exchanged between OIRA and the selected agencies during OIRA's review.

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