SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

Executive Order 12866 of September 30, 1993, “Regulatory Planning and Review,” as amended, establishes and governs the process under which OIRA reviews agencies' significant regulatory actions. E.O. 12866 meetings occur at the initiative of outside parties who request a meeting with OIRA about a regulatory action that is under OIRA review to present their views. OIRA invites to these meetings representatives from the agency or agencies that would issue the regulatory action, though participation may be limited by scheduling or other considerations.

E.O. 12866 meetings serve as listening sessions for OIRA officials. Members of the public can share their views with OIRA on a regulatory action under review, as well as any scientific, technical, social, or economic information, or information drawn from individual experience that may be helpful to OIRA officials while reviewing a regulatory action. During such meetings, OIRA officials may ask clarifying questions but will not share deliberative or pre-decisional information about the regulatory action under review.

E.O. 12866 meetings with OIRA are not a substitute for submitting comments to the action agencies under their applicable regulatory procedures.^[1] OIRA typically reviews regulatory actions, such as rules, undertaken by other agencies. Accordingly, OIRA is not the action agency and views shared only through the E.O. 12866 review process would not be considered properly submitted during the notice and comment period.

II. Overview of Reforms

The Modernizing E.O. directs the OIRA Administrator to implement reforms designed to reduce the risk or the appearance of disparate and undue influence on regulatory development. The reforms outlined here serve to facilitate meeting requests from individuals and groups that have not historically requested such meetings, including those from underserved communities, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the regulatory review process, and increase transparency around the E.O. 12866 meetings process, while treating all members of the public—no matter their resources or viewpoints—consistently and fairly. These reforms also help to implement President Biden's Presidential Memorandum of January 20, 2021, “Modernizing Regulatory Review.” That Memorandum called for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to “identify reforms that will promote the efficiency, transparency, and inclusiveness of the interagency review process,” ^[2] which includes E.O. 12866 meetings. Reforms under consideration include:

• a variety of strategies to provide information to facilitate the initiation of meeting requests from potential ( printed page 20917) participants that have not historically requested meetings;
• efforts to ensure access for meeting requestors that have not historically requested such meetings;
• discouraging meeting requests that are duplicative of earlier meetings with OIRA regarding the same regulatory action (at the same stage of the regulatory process) by the same meeting requestors;
• encouraging groups that would like to present similar views on a regulatory action to submit joint meeting requests wherever possible; and the
• disclosure of additional information aboutE.O. 12866 meetings that may be helpful to OIRA, to agencies, and to the general public, such as providing information about E.O. 12866 meeting requests in an open, machine-readable and accessible format.

OMB is seeking comments on its proposed 12866 Meetings Guidance regarding reforms under consideration by June 6, 2023. The draft is available at https://www.whitehouse.gov/​wp-content/​uploads/​2023/​04/​ModernizingEOSection2eDraftGuidance.pdf.

88 FR 20916