Regulatory Program of the United States

From 1985 to 1993, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget published an annual Regulatory Program of the United States Government. President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12498 on January 4, 1985, establishing an annual planning process for federal rulemaking whereby OMB reviewed and compiled covered agencies’ regulatory priorities and actions, and compiled them into a single government-wide document.

Reagan’s regulatory message accompanying the inaugural program said its objectives were to:

• Create a coordinated process for developing on an annual basis the Administration’s Regulatory Program;
• Establish Administration regulatory priorities;
• Increase the accountability of agency heads for the regulatory actions of their agencies;
• Provide for Presidential oversight of the regulatory process;
• Reduce the burdens of existing and future regulations;
• Minimize duplication and conflict of regulations; and
• Enhance public and congressional understanding of the Administration’s regulatory objectives.

In addition to the agency-by-agency plans, the annual report included a “Regulatory Program in Brief,” authored by OIRA economists, that highlighted regulatory philosophies, principles, and practices, many of which endure to this day. Appendices to the Program included key executive orders and memoranda governing regulatory activity. The September 1988 Program included as an appendix the first govern-wide Regulatory Impact Analysis Guidelines.

This page includes the Regulatory Program in Brief and Appendices to each Program. President Clinton discontinued publication of the Programs in September 1993 when he revoked Executive Order 12498 along with the earlier Executive Order 12291. However, he replaced them with Executive Order 12866, which set up its own annual planning mechanism, including the annual Regulatory Plan, which continues to this day.