From the introduction:
"On Jan. 18, 2007, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13422 (E.O.), which amends Executive Order 12866, Regulatory Planning and Review. The same day, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued its Final Bulletin for Agency Good Guidance Practices. The two executive directives work in concert to alter the ways federal agencies develop and enforce regulations.
"These changes could dramatically impair the ability of agencies to protect the public. The E.O.:
- requires agency regulatory policy officers to be presidential appointees and expands the powers of those officers;
- shifts the criterion for promulgating regulations from the identification of a problem like threats to public health to the identification of a "specific market failure" and,
- in conjunction with the Final Bulletin, allows the White House to exert control over agency guidance documents — subjecting a new class of information to political considerations and possible delay.
"As of July 24, 2007, agencies are to be in full compliance with all the provisions of the E.O. and the Final Bulletin. Agencies and OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) spent the first half of 2007 preparing and implementing aspects of the directives. But despite great attention paid by Congress, the media and the public, little new information has surfaced. The American people remain in the dark about how these changes will influence the way our government operates."