Obama Urges Independent Agencies to Shed Burdensome Rules
President Barack Obama urged independent agencies to consider proposals that would cut paperwork and eliminate outdated rules, broadening his effort to remove or overhaul unnecessary U.S. regulations.
Obama’s order is aimed at bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission and the National Labor Relations Board, excluded from the effort among federal departments he started in January to drop rules that stifle economic expansion without helping consumers.
“I hope you see this as an opportunity to something big and lasting -- to change the ways of Washington,” Obama said today in a statement to the agencies. “We are taking immediate steps to eliminate millions of hours in annual paperwork burdens for large and small businesses and save more than $1 billion in annual regulatory costs.”
The administration said in May that more than 30 agencies from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to the Food and Drug Administration are seeking to repeal or modify regulations to reduce reporting requirements and trim compliance costs. As part of the effort, rules for vapor-recovery systems at gas stations are being dropped and labeling requirements for hazardous materials are being altered.
Obama’s order is an historic request by the White House to the independent bodies, over which the president has limited power to dismiss the agency head, Cass Sunstein, the White House official in charge of regulatory overhaul proposals, said today on a conference call with reporters.
‘Traditional Understanding’
“The traditional understanding is that independent agencies are just that, independent,” he said. “The expectation is that the agencies will welcome this, and find this a productive moment as far as the public interest is concerned.”
The White House effort to eliminate unnecessary regulations has so far failed to slow the process, Republicans such as Representative Cliff Stearns of Florida, chairman of the subcommittee, have said.
“New regulations affecting many sectors of industry and aspects of American life are being promulgated under the same flawed system that produced the regulations identified” by the White House, Stearns said June 3 at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee panel on oversight and investigations.
To contact the reporter on this story: Holly Rosenkrantz in Washington at hrosenkrantz@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Larry Liebert at lliebert@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page