1. Create an interagency Regulatory Coordinating Group to share information and coordinate approaches to regulatory issues. (2) The President should establish an interagency Regulatory Coordinating Group (RCG) to provide agencies with a mechanism to share information and coordinate approaches to regulatory issues. The regulatory review executive order should create such a group and name the Administrator of OIRA as the Chair. The Group should be composed of political appointees or their designees from the key domestic regulatory agencies and certain key White House advisors. MISSION OF THE RCG. The RCG's mission should be to provide a forum for agencies to discuss issues of common concern, to assist agencies in finding more innovative approaches to regulation and better methods of developing regulation, and to improve coordination of regulatory policies. Meetings of the RCG should allow high-level regulators to discuss specific problems they are confronting and seek advice from similarly situated peers.[Endnote 18] The RCG should also decide what issues the Group should address and, as needed, establish task forces or working groups (including identifying a lead agency, designating which agencies and types of representatives should participate, and setting a goal for the group). The RCG could also be used as a forum to identify areas requiring coordination of two or more agencies on program development (similar to the joint efforts now underway on lead and pesticides). However, the RCG should not necessarily oversee this coordination or resolve substantive conflicts. Once the area and relevant agencies have been identified, the affected agencies should establish the proper structure for coordination and would not necessarily report back to the RCG. STRUCTURE OF THE RCG. The RCG itself needs to be composed of political appointees or their designees. Without high level support and direction, agency staff would be unlikely to spend the necessary time on RCG projects. Only political appointees or their designees can speak authoritatively for each agency, decide on the issues to which the agencies will commit resources, reach consensus on policies coming from the working groups, and direct implementation of recommendations. The RCG should accomplish most of its work by acting as an umbrella organization with task forces or working groups addressing specific issues. The task forces could be political appointees or career staff or both, depending on the goal of the task force. Representatives from different levels and disciplines within the agencies should needed to address different tasks. For some issues, it might be best for working groups to present a consensus view. In other situations, the best result might be a full statement of opposing views with the points of contention highlighted. The primary staff work for the RCG should be done by agency staffs in the task force or work group structure. This would allow agency experts who deal with a specific issue on a routine basis to compare notes with experts from other agencies. Resolution of scientific issues, for example, is done better by scientists who can critique each other's work. Similarly, improving agency/congressional relationships would probably best be handled by a task force of agency liaisons to Congress. ISSUES FOR THE RCG. The RCG's tasks should include the following: --Actively encouraging the use of innovative approaches to regulation. It should oversee the development of the Deskbook on Regulatory Design and identify innovative regulators from the agencies who can serve as resources for other regulators to contact for assistance in developing innovative approaches.[Endnote 19] An RCG group should also work with Congress to improve understanding of the merits and limits of innovative approaches. --Considering substantive policy areas that are in need of coordination (e.g., risk prioritization, valuation of lives saved or injuries avoided, measurement of future costs or benefits, valuation of eco-systems, and cost-benefit analysis). --Considering ways to improve the rulemaking process (e.g., increasing public participation, using information technology, removing procedural barriers, and improving agency/ congressional relationships). --Looking at ways for agencies to help people comply with regulations and to increase compliance through innovative means, such as sampling and auditing. Endnotes 18. Members of the Regulatory Council reported that they found the Regulatory Council a very useful way to get advice from people in similar situations. 19. The Regulatory Coordinating Group (RCG) should coordinate with the Program Design Office recommended in the report Rethinking Program Design. (See "DES01: Activate Program Design as a Formal Discipline.") 20. One hindrance to compliance is that the government regulates and organizes its regulations by subject area (e.g., labor, equal employment opportunity, highway safety, environmental protection) rather than by industry sector (e.g., gas stations, chemical companies, auto companies). Currently, if a small business wants to find out what regulations govern its actions, it must review each of the substantive parts of the multivolume Code of Federal Regulations to determine its obligations (although there may be private services that compile this information more usefully). It would be easier for the small business if there were an industry- specific listing of what regulations apply. Compiling such a listing and making it useful may be a very complicated proposition. It might be easier to have an office that helps businesses wend their way through the regulatory maze. See, e.g., the NPR report Environmental Protection Agency, "EPA 02: Streamline EPA's Permit Program to Improve Agency Efficiency and Customer Service." The RCG should consider a pilot program to determine what is feasible. The RCG should also look at other ways to coordinate regulation by looking at regulation from the regulated entity's perspective. RCG should consider whether it would be useful to compile planned regulations by industry sector, as the Regulatory Council did for the auto industry. Also, see "REG02: Encourage More Innovative Approaches To Regulation."
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