Flash Frozen: White House Reduces Regulators’ Control Across All Agencies

ANCOR is sharing this article by Politico because the measure it describes will have deep repercussions across all federal agencies, including those which oversee supports for people with intellectual / developmental disabilities. The measure could greatly slow down the process of implementing regulations and obtaining clarity on how the government expects groups who are subject to the regulations to comply with them.

As shared by Politico:

“The White House on Thursday moved to curb the power of federal regulators by directing them to submit nonbinding guidance documents to the budget office for review, a step that could slow down the enactment of any rule with a potentially large impact on the economy.

A memo from acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought would vastly broaden Congress’s ability to reject such guidance, subjecting the documents to the same scrutiny as regulations that carry the force of law.

[…]

The memo will have a potentially sweeping impact on agencies throughout the government including independent regulators like the Federal Reserve and the SEC. It calls on the agencies to regularly notify the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of upcoming guidance, along with determinations of whether it qualifies as ‘major’ — the threshold for notifying Congress under the Congressional Review Act.

Any guidance document deemed major by OIRA would need to be sent to Congress, which would then have the ability to strike it down under the review act, a law that gives lawmakers a short window to roll back a rule.”