Notice & Comment

Symposium on the ABA AdLaw Section’s Report to the President-Elect

Notice & Comment

APA Rulemaking Revision, Continued, by Ronald M. Levin

As part of this blog’s symposium on the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice’s recent Report to the President-Elect, Bernie Bell has written a thoughtful commentary on the ABA’s 2016 proposals to revise the Administrative Procedure Act. I have something of a stake in those proposals, because I successfully presented them to the […]

Notice & Comment

Regulatory Review for Independent Agencies, by Neomi Rao

The gap between textbook administrative law and actual practice exists in many areas, but perhaps nowhere more so than with respect to the so-called independent agencies. In theory, such agencies operate “independent” of the control and direction of the President. In practice, the White House has myriad mechanisms to oversee and even to control these […]

Notice & Comment

Promoting the Alternative to the Alternative to Courts, by Renée M. Landers

In A Report to the President-Elect of the United States 2016, the ABA’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice calls attention to the opportunity to enhance to the efficiency of, and satisfaction with, the outcomes of agency adjudications by expanding the government’s commitment to using ADR techniques. Any discussion of ADR in the context […]

Notice & Comment

A Syllabus on OIRA, by Jim Tozzi

In any incoming Administration there are two unique appointments which could have a significant impact on the ultimate success or failure of an Administration, the Director of OMB and the leader of one of its component offices—the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, OIRA. The former helps develop and enforce Presidential policies using the annual […]

Notice & Comment

Questions Concerning Federal Regulations during the Obama-Trump Transition, by John Cooney

The press and regulated entities have been asking many questions about the status of regulations issued under the Obama Administration, and whether and how they might be revised or repealed when the Trump Administration takes office.  These questions arise in four major areas — Executive Orders, Midnight Rules, application of the Congressional Review Act, and […]

Notice & Comment

Revisiting APA Section 553, by Bernard W. Bell

On February 8, 2016, the ABA adopted recommendations to revamp the APA’s informal rulemaking provision, 5 U.S.C. § 553.  In its Report to the President-Elect, the ABA Section on Administrative and Regulatory Law has urged the Trump administration to endorse those revisions (pages 10-11).  The provisions have been summarized previously in this blog here. Section […]

Notice & Comment

If the Public Is Not Aware of Agency Guidance, Does It Exist?, by Levon Schlichter

This blog post is one in a series of posts discussing the 2016 Report to the President-Elect that American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice issued shortly before the presidential election. In this post, I will discuss the recommendation that the President ensures that all agency guidance documents are made available online […]

Notice & Comment

Retrospective Review, for Tomorrow’s Sake

In the ABA Administrative Law Section’s Report to the President-Elect, one finds a rather familiar recommendation: that the agencies undertake “careful, in-depth retrospective review of existing rules.” I call this a “familiar” recommendation, because President-elect Trump’s predecessor called for such a retrospective review in his own Administration. In early 2011, after the mid-term elections, President Obama […]

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The Role of ACUS in Improving the Administrative Process under the New Administration, by Cheryl Blake

Proposals for regulatory reform featured prominently in the run-up to the 2016 election and will likely continue to receive very close attention in the new administration. As Emily Bremer highlighted in her introduction to this symposium, the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice prepared a report for both presidential candidates in […]

Notice & Comment

The ABA AdLaw Section’s Report to the President-Elect: Adjudication Recommendations, by Michael Asimow

A Trump administration is unlikely to be supportive of three of the four recommendations relating to adjudication in the Report to the President-Elect by the ABA Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. Considering these recommendations (though not in the order they were presented in the ABA’s letter): 1) The Ad Law Section urged the […]

Notice & Comment

The Right Kind of Cooperation

I am also pleased to contribute to this symposium on the Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice’s 2016 Report to the President-Elect. My assignment? Regulatory cooperation between the United States and other countries. I strongly support such cooperation — well, at least most of the time. To begin, this is what the Report has […]

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The OIRA Transparency Problem, by Peter Strauss

Among the ABA AdLaw Section’s recommendations in its bi-partisan Report to the President-Elect sent to both candidates before the election was this one concerning OIRA’s administration of Executive Order 12,866: Third, we urge you to ensure appropriate transparency in White House oversight of agency rulemaking through OIRA. From their beginning, the Executive orders creating a […]

Notice & Comment

Introduction: Symposium on the ABA AdLaw Section’s 2016 Report to the President-Elect

Over the next week or so, we will be hosting an online symposium on the 2016 Report to the President-Elect on Improving the Administrative Process, which was released by the ABA Section on Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice ahead of this year’s presidential election.  The symposium will feature posts from a wide diversity of administrative […]

Notice & Comment

Three Years Ago Today the Senate Dems (Partially) Killed the Filibuster

I am delighted to contribute to this symposium on the 2016 Report to the President-Elect that the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice issued shortly before the presidential election. As Emily Bremer noted in her symposium introduction earlier today, a number of administrative law scholars and experts will be doing short […]