The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA ) is a Division within the

Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...

(OMB), which in turn, is within the

Executive Office of the President The Executive Office of the President (EOP) comprises the offices and agencies that support the work of the president at the center of the executive branch of the United States federal government. The EOP consists of several offices and agenci ...

. OIRA oversees the implementation of government-wide policies in, and reviews draft regulations under,

Executive Order 12866 Executive Order 12866 in the United States requires benefit-cost analysis for any new regulation that is "economically significant," which is defined as having "an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more or adversely affect ngin a mate ...

, the

Paperwork Reduction Act The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 (Pub. L. No. 96-511, 94 Stat. 2812, codified at ) is a United States federal law enacted in 1980 designed to reduce the total amount of paperwork burden the federal government imposes on private businesses and c ...

, and the Information Quality Act.

Tasks

OIRA reviews draft rules that it receives from federal agencies under the three laws noted in the preamble to this article, and develops and oversees the implementation of government-wide policies in the areas of information technology, information policy, privacy, and statistical policy. As one step in the entire rulemaking process (as explained in more detail in

United States administrative law United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two fi ...

), OIRA reviews draft rules and regulations under 12866 from 1993. Executive Order 12866 describes OIRA's role in the rulemaking process and directs agencies, to follow certain principles, such as consideration of alternatives and analysis of impacts, both benefits and costs. OIRA reviews draft regulations to ensure agency compliance with this executive order.

History and jurisdiction

Cost/benefit analysis—Executive Order 12866 and its predecessors

Presidential regulatory principles and the centralized review of draft regulations had been part of U.S. regulatory development for decades.

President Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was t ...

's "

Quality of Life Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...

" program involved such review, and

President Ford Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...

's in 1974 required agencies to prepare

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the general price level of goods and services in an economy. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services; consequently, inflation corresponds to a reductio ...

/economic impact statements. A predecessor office had existed at

, OMB, an agency within the Executive Office of the President for many years; from 1977 to 1981, it was briefly at the Department of Commerce. It continued with President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...

's on "Improving Government Regulations." Today, about 20% of all regulation
flow through
OIRA for cost-benefit regulatory review under

Paperwork Reduction Act, 1981

The

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...

passed the

of 1980 () and its successor, the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (), that established OIRA in the OMB. The OMB review process became more formalized in 1981 with President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

's . During his administration, the White House had reviewed 2,000 to 3,000 regulations per year. It continued during the

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushSince around 2000, he has been usually called George H. W. Bush, Bush Senior, Bush 41 or Bush the Elder to distinguish him from his eldest son, George W. Bush, who served as the 43rd president from 2001 to 2009; pr ...

Administration and the first nine months of the

Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over Re ...

. In September 1993, President Bill Clinton issued , and the total dropped to between 500 and 700 annually.Curtis W. Copeland. 2009
Federal Rulemaking: The Role of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Congressional Research Service. The executive order states OIRA should focus on "economically significant" rules. Of the 500 to 700 rules reviewed by OIRA annually, about 100 have been classified as "economically significant". In 1995, the Paperwork Reduction Act was updated. In January 2007, President

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

signed , which changed the rules as of July 24, 2007. The Executive Order covers federal agencies' "guidance documents", in addition to regulations. Its stated purpose was to ensure that agencies comply with the regulatory principles stated in Executive Order 12866 and that the President's policies are reflected in agency rules. It also specified procedures for the resolution of conflicts between or among agencies. In July 2007, controversy arose in the U.S. Congress over this order giving the OIRA additional powers. The

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

voted to prohibit OIRA from spending federal money on Executive Order 13422. In January 2011, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

issued Executive Order 13563 to improve regulation and regulatory review. OIRA guides and coordinates agencies with respect to Circular A4, Information Quality Guidelines, and the Bulletin for Agency Good Guidance Practices.

Organization

The office has five branches: # Food, Health, and Labor Branch # Information Policy Branch # Natural Resources and Environment Branch # Statistical & Science Policy Branch # Transportation and Security Branch

Administrators

* James C. Miller III, January 1981 to September 1981 * Christopher C. DeMuth, October 1981 to May 1984 * Douglas H. Ginsburg, 1984 to 1985 *

Wendy Lee Gramm Wendy Lee Gramm (nee Wendy Lee on January 10, 1945 in Hawaii) is an American economist and former head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for the Reagan administration. She is also the wife of former United States Senator Phil Gramm. Gr ...

, October 1985 to February 1988 * S. Jay Plager, 1988 to 1989 * Jim MacRae (acting), 1989 to 1993 *

Sally Katzen Sally Katzen (born November 22, 1942) is an American lawyer, legal scholar, and government official. Katzen was a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project's Agency Review Working Group responsible for the Executive Office of the President and ...

, 1993–1998 * Don Arbuckle (acting), March 1997 to June 1999 * John T. Spotila, July 1999 to December 2000 * Don Arbuckle (acting), January 2001 to July 2001 * John Graham, 2001 – March 2006 – departed to accept the deanship of the

Pardee RAND Graduate School The Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School (Pardee RAND) is a private graduate school associated with the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California. The school offers doctoral studies in policy analysis and practical experience working on R ...

* Steve Aiken (acting), April 2006 to March 2007 * Susan Dudley, April 4, 2007 – January 20, 2009. * Kevin Neyland (Acting), January 20, 2009 - September 2009 * Cass Sunstein, September 2009 – August 21, 2012 *

Boris Bershteyn Boris Bershteyn (born 1977) is an Obama administration official who until June 2013 had served as acting Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. He previously served from 2011 to 2012 as general counsel for the federa ...

(acting) August 21, 2012 - June 27, 2013 * Howard Shelanski, June 27, 2013 – January 20, 2017 * Dominic Mancini (acting), January 20, 2017 – July 18, 2017 *

Neomi Rao Neomi Jehangir Rao (born March 22, 1973) is an American jurist and legal scholar who serves as a federal appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019, hav ...

, nominated April 7, 2017, served July 18, 2017 – March 18, 2019 * Dominic Mancini (acting), March 2019 * Paul J. Ray (acting), March 2019 – January 10, 2020, (confirmed) January 10, 2020 - January 20, 2021 * Dominic Mancini (acting) January 20, 2021 – April 22, 2021 * Sharon Block (acting) April 22, 2021 - February 1, 2022 * Dominic Mancini (acting) February 1, 2022 - Present *

Richard Revesz Richard L. Revesz (born May 9, 1958) is an American lawyer and academic. He is the director of the American Law Institute and the Lawrence King Professor of Law at the New York University School of Law. He served as the Dean of the New York Univer ...

(nominated September 2022)

Criticism

A 2011 report from the Center on Progressive Reform stated that in 10 years, OIRA altered 84 percent of EPA rule submissions. The EPA's new rules on ozone pollution developed since September 2009, rolled out as tougher draft standards in January 2010, were repeatedly delayed.

References

External links

*
Regulatory Information Service Center
in the

Federal Register The ''Federal Register'' (FR or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. It is published every weekday, except on feder ...

RegInfo: Where to find Federal Regulatory Information
thecre.com
History OMB Regulatory ReviewThe White House Transitions Project’s Insider’s Guide to OMBThe Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and the durability of regulatory oversight in the United States
By Susan E. Dudley for Regulation & Governance, 20 July, 2020. {{DEFAULTSORT:Office Of Information And Regulatory Affairs Government agencies established in 1980 Information and Regulatory Affairs