ED's Student Assistance & Loan Programs
The Department published a final rule on November 1, 2016 which made substantive changes to its treatment of borrower defenses and other loan discharges (i.e., loan forgiveness for borrowers) related to its Federal Direct Loan Program.
“Behavioural Government:” Implications for Regulator Behavior
The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) in the UK published a new report titled Behavioural Government. Although we usually talk about “nudging” to correct irrational choices of individual citizens, this report focuses instead on the behavioral biases of policymakers. The report considers various forms of behavioral bias and proposes a set of strategies to mitigate them.
The EPA has proposed to repeal the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions guidelines for electric generating units issued on October 23, 2015
EPA Proposes Replacement for Obama’s Signature Climate Initiative
The Environmental Protection Agency announced the Trump administration's proposed replacement for the Obama-era Clean Power Plan.
Council on Environmental Quality - Implementing NEPA
For the first time in 30 years, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) is considering an update to its regulations for implementing the procedural provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969.
Increasing Transparency in Considering Costs and Benefits in the Rulemaking Process -- Update
Attached is a comment that I filed in response to a recent EPA ANPRM to increase transparency in considering costs and benefits in the rulemaking process. I am filing this same comment in the CEQ docket as well, because of the parallels between CEQ’s efforts to bring consistency and transparency to the NEPA process and EPA’s efforts to pursue the same goals with respect to rulemaking.
EPA's ANPRM on Increasing Transparency in Benefit-Cost Analysis
In this Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Environmental Protection Agency sets a worthwhile goal of improving the consistency and transparency of the agency’s use of economic analyses to inform its rulemaking decisions.
EPA's Benefit-Cost Analysis in the Rulemaking Process
The EPA is “soliciting comment on whether and how EPA should promulgate regulations that provide a consistent and transparent interpretation relating to the consideration of weighing costs
Benefit-Cost Analysis as a Check on Administrative Discretion
Benefit-cost analysis (BCA) continues to be the principal tool used by American presidents to guide the discretionary decisions of regulatory agencies under their supervision, and increasingly it is viewed by the courts as an important consideration for agencies to take into account in justifying their regulatory decisions. This paper argues that BCA is properly viewed, not simply as a technocratic planning tool, but as a solution to a principal-agent problem.
Improving Regulatory Science: A Case Study of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards
This paper explores the motivations and institutional incentives of participants involved in the development of regulation aimed at reducing health risks, with a goal of understanding and identifying solutions to what the Bipartisan Policy Center has characterized as “a tendency to frame regulatory issues as debates solely about science, regardless of the actual subject in dispute, [that] is at the root of the stalemate and acrimony all too present in the regulatory system today.”
