OMB's Cass Sunstein Announces EO at U.S. Chamber of Commerce Event
At a summit on Next Steps and Implementation of ACUS Recommendations on Incorporation by Reference (IBR) and International Regulatory Cooperation (IRC) on Tuesday, May 1, at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC, Cass Sunstein, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), made the first public announcement of
Executive Order (EO) 13609, Promoting International Regulatory Cooperation. The EO is intended to strengthen American exports, economic growth, and job creation by helping to eliminate unnecessary regulatory differences between the United States and other countries. EO 13609 puts into official White House policy the requirement that regulators take into account the international implications of their actions in a consistent and comprehensive way. According to a posting by Mr. Sunstein on the White House blog, "Executive Order 13563 requires U.S. regulators, to the extent permitted by law, to select approaches that maximize net benefits; choose the least burdensome alternative; increase public participation in the rulemaking process; design rules that are simpler and more flexible, and that provide freedom of choice; and base regulations on sound science."
Read Mr. Sunstein's full blog posting. In a statement of support for the EO, Sean Heather, vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Center for Global Regulatory Cooperation (GRC), said, "This landmark executive order recognizes that good regulatory policy supports good trade policy. Dialogue between U.S. regulators and their foreign counterparts can avert unnecessary divergences in regulation that become ‘behind the border' barriers to commerce and hinder the ability of U.S. companies to reach the 95% of the world's consumers that live beyond our borders."
Read the Chamber's full statement of support. Mr. Sunstein announced the EO during his keynote remarks for the summit's panel on international regulatory cooperation. The summit was co-hosted by the GRC and the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), and also featured a panel on standards and incorporation by reference that included remarks from Scott Cooper, vice president, government relations and public policy, American National Standards Institute (ANSI). [
see related news item] According to of Adam Schlosser, senior manager for the GRC, representatives from a number of regulatory agencies including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and the Environmental Protection Association (EPA) expressed interest in increasing contact with the private sector and asked for more input to guide their international activities. The EO calls for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to seek stakeholder input and draft implementation guidelines. For more information on the private-sector efforts in support of the EO, contact Adam Schlosser (
[email protected]).
