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President Obama Signs New Executive Order

President Obama signed off today on a new Executive Order aimed at identifying and reducing regulatory burdens. It calls upon agencies to evaluate the effectives of old rules and issue reports on their progress.

The new order expands upon the provisions of Executive Order 13563 that required retrospective review plans from agencies to “determine whether any such regulations should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed.” Additional emphasis is placed on prioritizing “significant quantifiable monetary savings or significant quantifiable reductions in paperwork burdens.”

This is unfortunate considering that plans submitted by agencies in compliance with the last Executive order already focused almost exclusively on paperwork reduction and axing outdated rules. We encourage a more balanced approach that gives equal attention to extending protections where needed and cutting unnecessary rules. Incorporating such a system of review would go a long way towards fulfilling the full potential of the executive order.