The Regulatory Czar’s Recent Blog on Truck Driver Paperwork and the West, Texas, Tragedy

Center for Progressive Reform 2013-08-12

Summary:

Last week, Regulatory Czar Howard Shelanski embarked on his maiden voyage into the glamorous world of White House blogging, penning a post that touts the latest burden-reducing accomplishment of President Obama's dubious regulatory "look-back" initiative. On this auspicious occasion, he trumpets the Department of Transportation's (DOT) proposed rulemaking to reduce the number of inspection reports that commercial truck drivers have to file, resulting in reduced paperwork burden costs to the tune of $1.7 billion annually. Shelanski makes clear in the post that this DOT rulemaking is not an isolated incident, but is in fact part of the regulatory look-back initiative's broader antiregulatory project. He explains that the initiative is necessary because "some regulations that were well crafted when first issued can become unnecessary over time as conditions change - and regulations that aren't providing real benefits to society need to be streamlined, modified, or repealed." (Emphasis mine) In case the look-back's antiregulatory objective wasn't clear enough the first time around, Shelanski states emphatically at the end of the post: "This Administration will expand and further institutionalize our regulatory look-back efforts to ensure that we continue to identify rules that need to be modified, streamlined, or repealed." (Emphasis mine again) I've got a serious bone to pick with Shelansk's three-part formulation of the look-back initiative's goals ("streamline," "modify," "repeal"), and it's this: The clear language of Executive Order 13563 - which lays the initiative's groundwork - reveals that Shelanski is deliberately overlooking a fourth stated goal - to "expand" existing rules where appropriate - which, not incidentally, is all that provides the look-back process with any semblance of balance. It's right there in Section 6 of the order: ". . . agencies shall consider how best to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome, and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal them in accordance with what has been learned." (Emphasis mine yet again) See for yourself. I'll wait.

Link:

http://www.progressivereform.org/CPRBlog.cfm?idBlog=73F1EA8F-BEE5-4D23-CDB281E42FEACBD2

From feeds:

Berkeley Law Library -- Reference & Research Services » Center for Progressive Reform

Tags:

Authors:

James Goodwin

Date tagged:

08/12/2013, 20:10

Date published:

08/12/2013, 16:13