Executive Order (EO) 13610

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Presidential Documents

Federal Register
Vol. 77, No. 93
Monday, May 14, 2012

Title 3—

Executive Order 13610 of May 10, 2012

The President

Identifying and Reducing Regulatory Burdens
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the
laws of the United States of America, and in order to modernize our regulatory system and to reduce unjustified regulatory burdens and costs, it
is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. Regulations play an indispensable role in protecting public
health, welfare, safety, and our environment, but they can also impose
significant burdens and costs. During challenging economic times, we should
be especially careful not to impose unjustified regulatory requirements. For
this reason, it is particularly important for agencies to conduct retrospective
analyses of existing rules to examine whether they remain justified and
whether they should be modified or streamlined in light of changed circumstances, including the rise of new technologies.
Executive Order 13563 of January 18, 2011 (Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review), states that our regulatory system ‘‘must measure, and seek
to improve, the actual results of regulatory requirements.’’ To promote this
goal, that Executive Order requires agencies not merely to conduct a single
exercise, but to engage in ‘‘periodic review of existing significant regulations.’’
Pursuant to section 6(b) of that Executive Order, agencies are required to
develop retrospective review plans to review existing significant regulations
in order to ‘‘determine whether any such regulations should be modified,
streamlined, expanded, or repealed.’’ The purpose of this requirement is
to ‘‘make the agency’s regulatory program more effective or less burdensome
in achieving the regulatory objectives.’’
In response to Executive Order 13563, agencies have developed and made
available for public comment retrospective review plans that identify over
five hundred initiatives. A small fraction of those initiatives, already finalized
or formally proposed to the public, are anticipated to eliminate billions
of dollars in regulatory costs and tens of millions of hours in annual paperwork burdens. Significantly larger savings are anticipated as the plans are
implemented and as action is taken on additional initiatives.

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As a matter of longstanding practice and to satisfy statutory obligations,
many agencies engaged in periodic review of existing regulations prior to
the issuance of Executive Order 13563. But further steps should be taken,
consistent with law, agency resources, and regulatory priorities, to promote
public participation in retrospective review, to modernize our regulatory
system, and to institutionalize regular assessment of significant regulations.
Sec. 2. Public Participation in Retrospective Review. Members of the public,
including those directly and indirectly affected by regulations, as well as
State, local, and tribal governments, have important information about the
actual effects of existing regulations. For this reason, and consistent with
Executive Order 13563, agencies shall invite, on a regular basis (to be determined by the agency head in consultation with the Office of Information
and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA)), public suggestions about regulations in need
of retrospective review and about appropriate modifications to such regulations. To promote an open exchange of information, retrospective analyses
of regulations, including supporting data, shall be released to the public
online wherever practicable.
Sec. 3. Setting Priorities. In implementing and improving their retrospective
review plans, and in considering retrospective review suggestions from the

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Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 93 / Monday, May 14, 2012 / Presidential Documents
public, agencies shall give priority, consistent with law, to those initiatives
that will produce significant quantifiable monetary savings or significant
quantifiable reductions in paperwork burdens while protecting public health,
welfare, safety, and our environment. To the extent practicable and permitted
by law, agencies shall also give special consideration to initiatives that
would reduce unjustified regulatory burdens or simplify or harmonize regulatory requirements imposed on small businesses. Consistent with Executive
Order 13563 and Executive Order 12866 of September 30, 1993 (Regulatory
Planning and Review), agencies shall give consideration to the cumulative
effects of their own regulations, including cumulative burdens, and shall
to the extent practicable and consistent with law give priority to reforms
that would make significant progress in reducing those burdens while protecting public health, welfare, safety, and our environment.
Sec. 4. Accountability. Agencies shall regularly report on the status of their
retrospective review efforts to OIRA. Agency reports should describe progress,
anticipated accomplishments, and proposed timelines for relevant actions,
with an emphasis on the priorities described in section 3 of this order.
Agencies shall submit draft reports to OIRA on September 10, 2012, and
on the second Monday of January and July for each year thereafter, unless
directed otherwise through subsequent guidance from OIRA. Agencies shall
make final reports available to the public within a reasonable period (not
to exceed three weeks from the date of submission of draft reports to OIRA).
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) For purposes of this order, ‘‘agency’’ means
any authority of the United States that is an ‘‘agency’’ under 44 U.S.C.
3502(1), other than those considered to be independent regulatory agencies,
as defined in 44 U.S.C. 3502(5).
(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to a department or agency, or the head
thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(c) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and
subject to the availability of appropriations.
(d) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or
benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any
party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its
officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

[FR Doc. 2012–11798
Filed 5–11–12; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3295–F2–P

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THE WHITE HOUSE,
May 10, 2012.