January 2011

President Orders Review of Federal Regulations

On Jan. 18, President Obama signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to make future regulations less burdensome to businesses and repeal or modify existing regulations that are outdated and costly.

Many analysts view this initiative as an attempt by the Obama administration to embrace the business community. Streamlining federal regulations could benefit staffing firms and other U.S. employers.

Thomas Donahue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce said, "No major rule or regulation should be exempted from the review, including the recently enacted health care and financial reform laws." Yet critics, including Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO, warn that this regulatory review may endanger worker protections.

Nonetheless, the executive order advocates for an approach that seeks to strike the right balance between what is needed to protect the safety and health of all Americans and what is needed to generate job creation and growth.

"We have preserved freedom of commerce while applying those rules and regulations necessary to protect the public," wrote President Obama in a Wall Street Journal op-ed announcing the executive order. "Sometimes, those rules have gotten out of balance, placing unreasonable burdens on business—burdens that have stifled innovation and have had a chilling effect on growth and jobs. At other times, we have failed to meet our basic responsibility to protect the public interest, leading to disastrous consequences."

According to Jack Lew of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, the executive order establishes several principles for federal agencies to follow when creating a rule, such as:

• Consistent with law, agencies must consider costs and benefits and choose the least burdensome alternative.
• The regulatory process must encourage public participation and an open exchange of views, with an opportunity for the public to comment.
• Agencies must attempt to coordinate, simplify, and harmonize regulations to reduce costs and promote certainty for businesses and the public.

Existing regulations will be reviewed to determine whether they are still necessary and are crafted effectively. If not, they must be modified or repealed.

By May 18—120 days of the issuance of the executive order—each federal agency must develop and submit to OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs a preliminary plan for how the agency will periodically review its existing regulations to determine whether they should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed.

Source: Anne Duffy, American Staffing Association

In a pinch for temporary personnel? Order staff online.

By registering with careersusa.com, you can request staff conveniently from your computer desktop any time of the day. Be sure to bookmark our website so you can easily access industry-specific surveys that offer real-time statistics on interesting employment topics. Also, you’ll find archived issues of HIREWIRE News.

- Back to Top -

We hope you enjoyed reading this issue of HIREWIRE.
HIREWIRE is a free, monthly publication specifically designed to update our clients on industry trends and developments.

Copyright © 2011 CareersUSA®, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
6501 Congress Avenue, Suite 200, Boca Raton, FL 33487 • Toll Free: 1-888-CAREERS