This post was originally published on Legal Planet. Reprinted with permission.
The Biden administration is looking to make big regulatory changes, not least regarding climate change. Yet the White House office overseeing regulations is vacant. The obscurely named Office of Regulatory Affairs and Information (OIRA) has to sign off on all significant regulations. Even the dilatory Donald Trump had nominated a permanent administrator by July of his first year. Biden's delay in filling this important office is hard to defend.
The main reason for the delay is probably that Biden doesn't have the OIRA administrator's boss in place, either. Biden's nominee to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had to be withdrawn when her Senate support evaporated. That was on March 2, however, and there's still no new OMB nomination six months later. Maybe the reason is an inability to find a candidate who can win approval across the Democratic Party's spectrum, given wildly divergent attitudes toward government spending. Whatever the reason, that vacancy is regrettable, but it's no reason to leave OIRA vacant, as well.
OIRA does have an acting administrator, but there are limits to how much a temporary office holder can accomplish, particularly when OIRA is pushing back against other agencies or members of Congress. There are complaints that important regulatory initiatives are getting bogged down in the office due to the lack of strong leadership.
In the absence of permanent leadership at OIRA, the job of steering regulations seems to have passed to the National Economic Council, a group of presidential advisors. This is something of a regression to the George H.W. Bush days, when Dan Quayle led a shadowy White House regulatory oversight group. Congress made the director of OIRA a Senate-confirmed position in part to ensure accountability. While OIRA's transparency is not all it should be, it does at least have rules defining its role, logs of outside contacts such as conversations with industry lobbyists, and records of what comes in and out its door.
Biden has called for a major rethinking of the standards for regulatory review. The effort is long overdue. It is especially important to have a permanent OIRA administrator who can have a seat at the table. The task force needs to have the input of people who are familiar with the existing system and who will have to implement any changes.
In short, there are many good reasons to get a strong, permanent administrator of OIRA in place. That should be a priority for Biden given his regulatory initiatives.
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Daniel Farber | September 10, 2021
The Biden administration is looking to make big regulatory changes, not least regarding climate change. Yet the White House office overseeing regulations is vacant. The obscurely named Office of Regulatory Affairs and Information (OIRA) has to sign off on all significant regulations. Even the dilatory Donald Trump had nominated a permanent administrator by July of his first year. Biden's delay in filling this important office is hard to defend.
Darya Minovi | September 9, 2021
On August 29, Hurricane Ida pummeled Louisiana’s coastline with winds as high as 150 miles per hour and a storm surge of up to nine feet, flooding communities and destroying homes. The Category 4 storm displaced thousands of people and left 1 million without power -- all as the coronavirus surge overwhelms hospitals across the state. Amid this chaos, Louisianans faced yet another hazard -- the risk of exposure to toxic pollutants from explosions, flares, and accidental releases at disabled, damaged, or flooded industrial facilities.
Allison Stevens, Jennifer Nichols | September 8, 2021
Soaring rates of voluntary resignations, widespread labor shortages, and the ubiquity of "Help Wanted" signs put the "labor" back in the Labor Day holiday this year, as employers struggle to respond to a jobs market that seems, for once, to have given workers the upper hand. Story after story blames current labor market conditions on "burnout," an occupational phenomenon the World Health Organization describes as a combination of symptoms that includes emotional exhaustion and reduced personal accomplishment. "Burnout -- and opportunity -- are driving record wave of quitting," the Deseret (Utah) News declared in August. But what if the diagnosis -- or rather, what we call it -- is a symptom of the real problem? Naming the phenomenon for its toll on workers, rather than for the working conditions that drive it, skews our understanding of what's wrong and how to fix it.
Minor Sinclair | September 6, 2021
Economists are scratching their heads furiously — why is there a labor shortage amidst high unemployment? Everywhere employers are posting “Help Wanted” signs but still face shortage of workers. The last six months of worker disillusionment with the job market shows a new source of power: the power of workers when they withdraw the services of their labor.
Robert Verchick | September 3, 2021
Ask just about any New Orleanian to name the most exasperating thing about the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, and you’ll get the same answer. It isn’t the floodwater. Or the roof damage. It’s something more familiar but equally as threatening to life, health and property: power failure.
Marcha Chaudry | September 3, 2021
No federal standard currently protects workers from heat or heat stress. Between 1992 and 2017, heat killed 815 workers on the job and seriously injured 70,000 more, according to federal records. It's time to support America's laborers and their many contributions workers make to America’s strength, prosperity, and wellbeing. Here's how.
James Goodwin, Robert Verchick | September 2, 2021
Environmental justice advocates have long recognized that procedural fairness is just as important as substantive fairness. That’s why they are concerned with not only how environmental benefits and harms are distributed, but also how those decisions are made. Given its attention to procedural fairness, the National Environmental Policy Act breathes life into environmental justice principles, even though it preceded the formal launch of the environmental justice movement by more than a decade.
Allison Stevens | September 2, 2021
The U.S. Senate faces a long to-do list when it reconvenes next month. U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Fairfax, wants to be sure an important but fairly obscure environmental health bill makes the list.
Joel A. Mintz | August 30, 2021
In the first segment of its Sixth Assessment, issued earlier this month, the IPCC report states that it "provides a full and comprehensive assessment of the physical science basis of climate change that builds upon the previous assessments ... and considers new information and knowledge from the recent scientific literature, including longer observational data sets, new scenarios and model results." This authoritative document draws conclusions that are deeply alarming. While (like all prior assessments) the report does not recommend specific remedial actions, the latest report implicitly suggests an urgent need for collective action to avoid natural devastation and massive future human catastrophes.