The Obama Approach to Public Protection: The Regulatory Process

OMB Watch released the third and final report in a series on public protections and the Obama administration. The new report finds that although the Obama administration's overall regulatory philosophy is strikingly different from that of the previous administration, promised changes to the federal regulatory process have stalled out.

The administration's progress is due in large part to the appointment of qualified and dedicated individuals to lead regulatory agencies and an early commitment to restoring budgets that had suffered years of cuts, the report finds. The report also notes that the administration has made progress on government openness and scientific integrity policies that should prove beneficial to regulatory transparency and the key role that science should play in crafting public protections. However, Rick Melberth, Director of Regulatory Policy at OMB Watch, noted, "The transformative change to the regulatory process promised at the beginning of the Obama administration has not yet become a reality."