Biden Signs Executive Order on Regulatory Review

On April 6^th, President Biden signed an Executive Order on Modernizing Regulatory Review. The order states that, “It is the policy of my Administration to mobilize the power of the Federal Government to rebuild our Nation and address these and other challenges.  As we do so, it is important that we evaluate the processes and principles that govern regulatory review to ensure swift and effective Federal action.”  Through the order, Biden has directed the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to begin a process with the goal of producing a set of recommendations for improving and modernizing regulatory review.  These recommendations should provide concrete suggestions on how the regulatory review process can promote public health and safety, economic growth, social welfare, racial justice, environmental stewardship, human dignity, equity, and the interests of future generations.  The recommendations should also include proposals that would ensure that regulatory review serves as a tool to affirmatively promote regulations that advance these values.

According to a MEMORANDUM sent to executive agencies, the primary goals of the Executive Order are to:

– Identify ways to modernize and improve the regulatory review process to ensure that the review process promotes policies that reflect new developments in scientific and economic understanding, fully accounts for regulatory benefits that are difficult or impossible to quantify, and does not have harmful anti-regulatory or deregulatory effects

– Propose procedures that take into account the distributional consequences of regulations, including as part of any quantitative or qualitative analysis of the costs and benefits of regulations, to ensure that regulatory initiatives appropriately benefit and do not inappropriately burden disadvantaged, vulnerable, or marginalized communities

– Consider ways that OIRA can play a more proactive role in partnering with agencies to explore, promote, and undertake regulatory initiatives

–  Identify reforms that will promote the efficiency, transparency, and inclusiveness of the interagency review process, and determine an appropriate approach with respect to the review of guidance documents.

The Biden Administration is already actively pursuing a number of regulatory actions on programs such as the Risk Management Program and Process Safety Management that could have an impact on the cold chain industry.  The Executive Order is a strong indication that the administration plans to continue its aggressive pace of issuing new regulations.