OIRA Issues Guidance On "Two-for-One" Rule

On February 2, 2017, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) issued Guidance in order to clarify last week's Executive Order (EO) regarding the issuance of administrative rules. The EO requires agencies to identify at least two existing regulations to be repealed for every one newly promulgated regulation. The EO also requires the total incremental costs of all new regulations finalized in Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 to be offset by eliminating costs associated with repealed regulations.

The Guidance clarifies that the EO only applies to significant regulatory actions – rules with annual compliance costs of $100 million per year — issued between January 20 and September 30, 2017 (the end of the fiscal year). The EO's applicability to new "significant" guidance documents will be addressed on a "case-by-case" basis. Purely deregulatory actions that only confer savings generally will not be subject to the EO.