Regulatory Review in the Obama Administration, Part 2:
Alive and well, reports to the contrary notwithstanding
24 Feb 2009 in Regulatory Policy
In a February 17 article, Politico reporter Josh Gerstein claims that "[i]n his first weeks in office, President Barack Obama shut down his predecessor’s system for reviewing regulations" and "managed to take all these actions with nary a mention from the White House press corps." Gerstein further claims that this "escaped notice because they were never announced by the White House Press Office and were never placed on the White House web site."
Gerstein's reporting is erroneous.
Gerstein's story is inconsistent with the data, both substantively and procedurally.
President Obama issued Executive Order 13497 on January 30 and posted it on the web within a couple days. Neutral Source made it available to readers on February 4, the same day it was published in the Federal Register. The Administration has been a bit tardy in posting many documents, but this appears to be attributable to the pace of White House document generation and its decision to revamp the White House web site at the outset of the Administration. In addition, many reporters seem to have only recently discovered the genre called Executive Orders wvwn though presidents have issued more than 13,000 of them.
Substantively, President Obama did not "shut down" centralized regulatory oversight by the Office of Management and Budget, and the system he did not shut down has been in place since 1981. Executive Order 13497 restored the review system that was in place during the Clinton Administration pending a 100-day interagency review that is expected to result in significant revisions. The Bush 43 Administration's Executive Orders (13258 and 13422) that President Obama revoked were relatively minor amendments to the Clinton era system; their revocation is no more newsworthy than their original promulgation, which also was not reported by the White House press corps.
Gerstein's article suggests that at least some reporters have become dependent on the White House to generate press releases that become the basis for news stories:
The moves escaped notice because they were never announced by the White House Press Office and were never placed on the White House web site.
They came to light only because the official paperwork was transmitted to the Federal Register, a dense daily compendium of regulatory actions and other formal notices prepared by the National Archives. They were published there several days after the fact.
A Politico review of Federal Register issuances since Obama took office found three executive orders, one presidential memorandum, one presidential notice, and one proclamation that went unannounced by the White House.
Two of Obama's actions on regulatory reform were spotted by bloggers, lobbying groups and trade publications after they emerged in the Federal Register.
Politico's decision to begin reviewing the Federal Register in search of news is news itself. Politico tends to be dominated by opinioneering with few references to primary sources, such as the Federal Register notices that comprise the authoritative voice of the federal government.
