May ’23 at-a-glance … regulations

Administration proposes changes to the regulatory decision-making and engagement processes that could have far-reaching impact

The Biden administration recently issued significant proposed changes to how federal agencies support regulatory policy decisions, including changes to how agencies should engage the public and what costs-benefits agencies may consider in their analysis. Among other proposals, the Executive Order:

• Raises the threshold for when an agency must conduct a thorough analysis of the costs and benefits of a regulation from estimated impacts of $100 million per year to $200 million per year.
• Reduces oversight from certain government agencies like the Department of Justice and Small Business Administration (SBA) that historically help to moderate the volume and potential overreach of a broad range of regulatory policies.

In the Executive Order, the administration says the proposal modernizes the regulatory process. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, on the other hand, says, “The proposed changes to the regulatory review process will fundamentally undermine the concept of cost-benefit analysis, allowing the Administration to hide the true costs of its aggressive regulatory agenda.” Following the Executive Order, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued guidance to agencies on how to conduct regulatory cost and benefit analyses and who should be prioritized for meetings with the White House during the regulatory development process. Comments are due June 6.

Commerce considers strengthening trade remedies

The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) issued an extensive proposed rule seeking to revise many of its procedures and practices around trade remedies. Specifically, the agency is looking to “amend its regulations to enhance, improve and strengthen its enforcement of trade remedies through the administration of antidumping duty and countervailing duty laws.” Comments are due July 10.

NAM comments on behalf of American manufacturers re: recent SEC actions

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) provided comments to the House Financial Services Committee before recent hearings about the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Specifically, NAM addressed “several recent SEC actions that could threaten access to capital and impose costly and unnecessary regulatory burdens on manufacturers that slow job creation and growth.” According to NAM, these include the SEC:
• Proposing costly and unworkable climate disclosure requirements on public and private companies with pending environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting requirements.