We have reached the six-month anniversary of President Trump’s landmark executive order that extended the regulatory review process run by the White House’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to regulations issued by independent agencies.[1]  This order marked an important change for many companies, especially in the financial services and energy sectors, whose regulators are now subject to White House regulatory review for the first time.

President Trump’s order left open many questions about how OIRA review of independent agency rules would work in practice.  Here at the six-month mark, we have seen enough such reviews to begin to answer these questions.  The bottom line for business is that OIRA and the independent agencies have begun to work out a harmonious relationship.  The independent agencies have acquiesced in OIRA review; indeed, nearly all major independent regulators have by now submitted rules for review.  Reviews—far from imposing major delays on independent agency rulemaking, as some feared—have been remarkably speedy, with both OIRA and the agencies themselves willing to dispense with formalities to expedite reviews.  In short, OIRA review is being integrated into the regulatory process of the independent agencies without undue disruption.Continue Reading OIRA Review of Independent Agency Rulemakings: What We Know So Far