USDA's Preliminary 21st Century Plan to Review Existing Regs

(The White House recently posted 30 preliminary plans for “21st Century” regulations that were submitted by government agencies, including the State Department’s. See ITT’s Online Archives or 05/31/11 news, 11053130, for BP summary.)

FSIS, APHIS Likely to be Reviewed in Next 2 Years

USDA has determined that the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) are among the agencies on USDA's initial list of candidates for retrospective review over the next two years. USDA notes that while it is focusing its initial review on these agencies, it is accepting comments from the public on any of its regulations and ways advance the mission of USDA consistent with EO 13563.

FSIS to Review Labeling Rules and Reporting Requirements, Etc.

As part of its review of regulations, FSIS will do the following:

• Meat, poultry, egg labels -- implement measures to decrease the recordkeeping burden on industry, by possibly reducing requirements for meat, poultry, and egg product labels to be submitted for approval before they may be used.
• Reduce reporting requirements -- consider how its new Public Health Information System (PHIS) could potentially be used to share data and reduce data reporting requirements, for example to allow FSIS to adjust domestic and import inspections and sampling based on trends, improve FSIS’ ability to systematically verify the effectiveness of foreign food safety systems, etc.
• Improve info collection procedures -- identify improvements in information collection procedures to improve the quality and sufficiency of data available to inform and support regulatory decision making, specifically for collections that include establishment information on products, processes, and volume, with linkages of testing results to products and processes.

APHIS to Improve Approval Process for Genetically Engineered Organisms

As part of its review of regulations, APHIS will do the following:

• Pilot for genetically engineered orgs -- conduct a two-year, voluntary, pilot project to improve the approval process for genetically engineered organisms, which APHIS hopes will improve the quality and timeliness of the process, while also reducing the cost. The pilot will focus on petitions for non-regulated status and will not focus on permits or notifications.
• Evaluate methods of using docs -- APHIS will evaluate the feasibility of two methods of using environmental documents prepared outside of APHIS to help meet National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requirements. In the first method, petitioners requesting approval of an organism would be allowed to voluntarily submit the underlying environmental reports, which APHIS would use to develop an Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). In the second method, the EA and EIS would be prepared by a contractor selected and directed by APHIS, and analyses and documents may be prepared for the entire NEPA process or only part of the process.

¹On January 18, 2011, the President issued EO 13563, "Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review," which requires retrospective review of significant rules. EO 13563 requires each Executive Branch agency to develop a preliminary plan to periodically review its existing regulations to determine whether any regulations should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed so as to make the agency’s regulatory program more effective or less burdensome in achieving its regulatory objectives. The plans were due to the Office of Management and Budget by May 18, 2011. (See ITT’s Online Archives or 01/19/11 news, 11011915, for BP summary.)

(See ITT's Online Archives or 04/20/11 news, 11042018, for BP summary of USDA seeking comments on its plan.

See ITT's Online Archives or 06/06/11, 06/03/11, 06/02/11, and 06/01/11 news, 11060303, 11060302, 11060204, 11060121, for BP summaries of the Departments of Energy, Treasury, State and Homeland Security's preliminary plans.)