Periodic Review of Existing Regulations; Retrospective Review Under E.O. 13563, 17888-17889 [2013-06729]

Agencies

• Department of Justice

[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 57 (Monday, March 25, 2013)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 17888-17889]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2013-06729]


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Proposed Rules
                                                Federal Register
________________________________________________________________________

This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER contains notices to the public of 
the proposed issuance of rules and regulations. The purpose of these 
notices is to give interested persons an opportunity to participate in 
the rule making prior to the adoption of the final rules.

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Federal Register / Vol. 78, No. 57 / Monday, March 25, 2013 / 
Proposed Rules

[[Page 17888]]



DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

2 CFR Chapter XXVII

5 CFR Chapter XXVIII

8 CFR Chapter V

21 CFR Chapter II

27 CFR Chapter II

28 CFR Chapters I, III, V and VI

31 CFR Chapter IX

40 CFR Chapter IV

41 CFR Chapter 128

45 CFR Chapter V

48 CFR Chapter 28

[Docket No. OLP 152]


Periodic Review of Existing Regulations; Retrospective Review 
Under E.O. 13563

AGENCY: Department of Justice.

ACTION: Request for comment.

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SUMMARY: On January 18, 2011, the President issued Executive Order 
13563, ``Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' which sets forth 
principles and requirements designed to promote public participation, 
improve integration and innovation, increase flexibility, ensure 
scientific integrity, and increase retrospective analysis of existing 
rules. On August 22, 2011, pursuant to that Executive Order, the 
Department of Justice published its Final Plan for Retrospective Review 
of Existing Regulations. Then, on May 10, 2012, the President issued 
Executive Order 13610, ``Identifying and Reducing Regulatory Burdens,'' 
which requires agencies to ``invite, on a regular basis * * * public 
suggestions about regulations in need of retrospective review and about 
appropriate modifications to such regulations. In accordance with 
Executive Orders 13563 and 13610, and the Department's Final Plan, the 
Department invites interested members of the public to submit 
suggestions as to which Department of Justice Regulations should be 
modified, streamlined, expanded or repealed.

DATES: Written comments must be postmarked and electronic comments must 
be submitted on or before May 24, 2013. Commenters should be aware that 
the electronic Federal Docket Management System will not accept 
comments after 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the last day of the comment 
period.

ADDRESSES: Comments may be mailed to OLP Regulatory Docket Clerk, 
Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Room 4250, 
Washington, DC 20530. To ensure proper handling, please reference OLP 
Docket No. OLP 152 on your correspondence. You may submit comments 
electronically or view an electronic version of this notice with 
request for comments at https://www.regulations.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Robert Hinchman, Senior Counsel, 
Office of Legal Policy, Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue 
NW., Room 4252, Washington, DC 20530; Telephone (202) 514-8059.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Posting of Public Comments. Please note that all comments received 
are considered part of the public record and made available for public 
inspection online at https://www.regulations.gov. If you wish to inspect 
the agency's public docket file in person by appointment, please see 
the paragraph above entitled FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
    Such information includes personal identifying information (such as 
your name, address, etc.) voluntarily submitted by the commenter. If 
you do not wish personally identifying information to be posted online, 
you must include the phrase ``PERSONAL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION'' in the 
first paragraph of your comment. You must also place all the personal 
identifying information you do not want posted online or made available 
in the public docket in the first paragraph of your comment and 
identify what information you want redacted. Personal identifying 
information identified and located as set forth above will be placed in 
the agency's public docket file, but not posted online.

Overview

    On January 18, 2011, President Barack Obama issued Executive Order 
13563, ``Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review,'' to ensure that 
Federal regulations seek more affordable, less intrusive means to 
achieve policy goals, and that agencies give careful consideration to 
the benefits and costs of those regulations. To that end, the Executive 
Order requires agencies to develop a plan ``under which the agency will 
periodically review its existing significant regulations.''
    Pursuant to Executive Order 13563, the Department of Justice 
developed a preliminary plan for retrospective analysis in keeping with 
its resources, expertise, and regulatory priorities. The Department 
twice sought comment from regulated entities and the general public, 
and those previous public comments can be found online at https://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;dct=PS;rpp=25;po=0;D=DOJ-OAG-2011-
0003 for Docket No. OLP 150, and at https://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;dct=PS%252BSR;rpp=25;po=0;D=DOJ-LA-2011-0016 for Docket 
No. DOJ-LA-2011-0016.
    After careful review, the Department incorporated many of those 
suggestions in its preliminary and final retrospective review plans. 
The Department also considered and incorporated best practices from its 
extensive efforts already underway to review existing regulations, 
respond to petitions for rulemaking, modernize technologies, and engage 
the public. The Department published its Final Plan for Retrospective 
Review of Existing Regulations on August 22, 2011, which is available 
online at https://www.justice.gov/open/doj-rr-final-plan.pdf.
    The Final Plan identified several regulations for an initial round 
of retrospective review, and indicated that the Department expected to 
identify additional regulations for retrospective review in the future. 
As part of its execution of this plan, the Department is again seeking 
public comment on which regulations should be prioritized for 
retrospective review.

Background

    Executive Order 13563 calls for ``periodic review of existing 
significant regulations,'' with close reference to empirical evidence. 
Additionally,

[[Page 17889]]

Executive Order 13610 calls for regular participation of members of the 
public, including those directly and indirectly affected by 
regulations, as well as State, local, and tribal governments. Although 
the Department of Justice is primarily a law-enforcement agency, not a 
regulatory agency, some of its components have regulatory programs 
related to their responsibilities, and the Department is committed to 
the ongoing process of reviewing its existing regulations. Consistent 
with that commitment, the Department continues to assess its existing 
significant regulations in accordance with the requirements of the 
Executive Order through the implementation of its plan for 
retrospective review. As part of its Final Plan for Retrospective 
Review of Existing Regulations, the Department established a 
Department-wide working group to collaborate with rulemaking components 
to select rules for review, seek public comment, and recommend 
revisions as necessary.
    Since publishing the final plan, the working group met and 
discussed the principles underlying Executive Order 13563 and the 
Departmental process for retrospective review. The working group heard 
presentations from the relevant components whose regulations had been 
selected for initial review in the Final Plan. After collaboration 
between the relevant components and the working group, the Department 
prepared rulemaking documents seeking public comment on particular 
rules identified for initial review.
    Pursuant to the Final Plan, the Department continues to identify 
rules internally and seek suggestions from Department components 
regarding which rules should be prioritized in the retrospective review 
process. In addition, the Final Plan also calls for periodic 
solicitation of suggestions from the public. As part of this ongoing 
process, the Department is presently seeking public input as to which 
rules should be prioritized under the criteria identified in the Final 
Plan and reproduced below.

Request for Comments

    The Department of Justice recognizes that valuable information as 
to the consequences of a rule, including its costs and benefits, comes 
from practical real-world experience (both on the part of the public 
and on the part of the Department) after the rule has been implemented. 
Consistent with the Department's commitment to public participation, 
the Department is seeking views from the public that identify specific 
rules or obligations that should be prioritized for review, including 
candidates for modification, streamlining, expansion or repeal. 
Comments should specifically describe how existing rules may be 
outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome.
    The Department's internal working group, formed pursuant to its 
Final Plan for Retrospective Review of Existing Regulations, will 
evaluate suggestions of candidate rules. The Department has identified 
criteria that will guide the working group in prioritizing rules for 
retrospective review. The most important candidate rules for review are 
those that:
     Could result in greater net benefits to the public if 
modified; or
     Could be replaced by other, less burdensome regulatory 
alternatives without compromising regulatory objectives.
    In identifying rules that may meet those criteria, the Department 
will focus on rules that:
     Have been overtaken by new circumstances or technologies; 
or
     Require outdated reporting practices, such as paper-based 
processes without an electronic alternative; or
     Have been in place for long periods of time without 
revision so that updating may be appropriate; or
     Overlap, duplicate, or conflict with other federal rules 
or with State and local rules; or
     Have been the subject of petitions for rulemaking 
suggesting ways to enhance net benefits or improve the efficacy of 
regulatory programs.
    Finally, in selecting rules for review, the Department will 
prioritize rules that meet these criteria and:
     Impose high costs or burdens on the public; or
     Affect a large number of entities or have disproportionate 
distributional impacts on certain entities, such as small businesses.
    In addition to the above criteria, where relevant, feasible, and 
consistent with regulatory objectives, and to the extent permitted by 
law, the Department will consider regulatory approaches that reduce 
burdens and maintain flexibility and freedom of choice for the public.
    The Department of Justice is soliciting concrete reasons why 
particular rules should be prioritized according to the above criteria 
in its ongoing retrospective review of existing rules. Comments should 
focus on regulations that have demonstrated deficiencies and clearly 
reflect the criteria set forth above. Comments that reiterate 
previously submitted arguments relating to recently issued rules will 
be less useful. Furthermore, commenters are encouraged to focus on 
regulatory changes that will achieve a broad public impact, rather than 
an individual personal or corporate benefit. Comments should reference 
a specific regulation by the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) cite, 
and provide specific information on what needs fixing and why. Lastly, 
the Department stresses that this review is for published final rules; 
the public should not use this process to submit comments on proposed 
rules.
    The most useful comments will identify which specific regulations 
need to be changed, strengthened or clarified, or revoked. It will be 
most helpful to explain why the particular suggested change or 
revocation is necessary or desired, and to provide specific ways to 
improve the regulation, particularly any specific language 
modifications.
    As part of its ongoing retrospective analysis, the Department's 
working group will again review the comments and suggestions previously 
submitted in response to the initial Requests for Comment in 2011, and 
it will consider whether to prioritize any regulations that had 
previously been the subject of public comments in the next round of 
retrospective analysis under Executive Order 13563. Thus, it is 
unnecessary for commenters to resubmit or reiterate previously-filed 
comments. Comments addressing more recent developments or offering a 
different or more thorough analysis relating to regulations that had 
previously been the subject of public comment for retrospective review 
would be welcome.
    The Department notes that this Request for Comment is issued solely 
for information and program-planning purposes. The Department will give 
careful consideration to the responses, and may use them as appropriate 
during the retrospective review, but we do not anticipate providing a 
point-by-point response to each comment submitted. While responses to 
this Request for Comment do not bind the Department to any further 
actions related to the response, all submissions will be made publicly 
available on https://www.regulations.gov.

     Dated: March 19, 2013.
Elana Tyrangiel,
Acting Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Policy.
[FR Doc. 2013-06729 Filed 3-22-13; 8:45 am]
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