The White House’s chief gatekeeper of new regulations is warning agencies against an end-of-year rush of new rules.
“If they come late with rules … their rule may not be completed by the end of the administration,” said Howard Shelanski, the director of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, at a House Judiciary Committee regulation reform panel hearing on Wednesday. “We need time to make sure we do a substantial review.”
He was responding to questions from the chairman of the oversight panel, Rep. Tom Marino, R-Pa., who wants Shelanski to give notice to agencies publicly if they try to squeeze in regulations at the end of the Obama administration.
“I ask my kids to have something done. And if it’s not done there are consequences,” Marino told Shelanski. But he went further, suggesting some form of sanctions to agencies that try to rush out regulations.
“American people need to understand what is not taking place,” Marino said. “There are responsibilities,” and “if it’s not done there are sanctions.”
“Make it publicly known that your request wasn’t fulfilled and the agency is lacking in getting the information to the American people,” Marino added. “What say you?”
Shelanski said his hands are tied for taking anything close to Marino’s recommendation.
He said he does not have the authority to take action against an agency. The best he can do is tell them “we are running out of time.”
Shelanski added that “they are on notice that we can’t shortcut our process. We can’t rush rules at the end.”
The GOP has criticized Shelanski’s office for being too lax in its oversight of the costs of several burdensome regulations, including a number of rules issued by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the chairman of the full Judiciary Committee, said at the hearing that EPA’s Clean Power Plan, Waters of the United States rule and stringent pollution rules on coal plants are prime examples of the increased burden on consumers and business.
Goodlatte said President Obama’s “I-have-got-a-pen approach” to regulation has “abused discretion” to drive his administration’s agenda.
“It is the responsibility of Congress to examine how we can put the brakes on the runaway regulatory system and take the burden of unnecessary regulation off the backs of the American people,” Goodlatte and Marino said in a joint statement.
The two-part hearing Wednesday included a number of experts from think tanks who proposed reforms to the regulatory review process.
