President Obama: Executive Order 13564: The President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness

January 31, 2011

Executive Order 13564 -- The President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

January 31, 2011

Executive Order 13564 -- The President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness

EXECUTIVE ORDER

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT'S COUNCIL ON JOBS AND COMPETITIVENESS

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to continue to strengthen the Nation's economy and ensure the competitiveness of the United States and to create jobs, opportunity, and prosperity for the American people by ensuring the availability of non partisan advice to the President from participants in and experts on the economy, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1.  There is hereby established within the Department of the Treasury the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness (PCJC).  The PCJC shall consist of members appointed by the President from among distinguished citizens outside the Federal Government and shall include citizens chosen to serve as representatives of the various sectors of the economy to offer the diverse perspectives of the private sector, employers, and workers on how the Federal Government can best foster growth, competitiveness, innovation, and job creation.  The members may also include citizens selected based on their expertise and experience to offer independent advice.  The President shall designate a Chair from among the members.  A Co Chair of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology who is not serving in the Federal Government and the Chair and Vice Chair of the President's Export Council shall serve as ex officio members.  The Treasury may provide the PCJC with a staff, as necessary.

Sec. 2.  The functions of the PCJC are advisory only.  The PCJC shall meet regularly and shall:

(a)  solicit ideas from across the country about how to bolster the economy and the prosperity of the American people that can inform the decisionmaking of the President, and with respect to matters deemed appropriate by the President, provide information and recommendations to any executive department or agency (agency) with responsibilities related to the economy, growth, innovation, American competitiveness, or job creation;

(b)  report directly to the President on the design, implementation, and evaluation of policies to promote the growth of the American economy, enhance the skills and education of Americans, maintain a stable and sound financial and banking system, create stable jobs for American workers, and improve the long term prosperity and competitiveness of the American people; and

(c)  provide analysis and information with respect to the operation, regulation, and healthy functioning of the economy and other factors that may contribute to the sustainable growth and competitiveness of American industry and the American labor force.  As deemed appropriate by the President, this analysis and information shall be provided to the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the National Economic Council, or any agency with responsibilities related to the economy, growth, innovation, American competitiveness, or job creation.

Sec. 3.  Administration of the PCJC.  (a)  All agencies and all offices within the Executive Office of the President shall cooperate with the PCJC and provide such information and assistance to the PCJC as the Chair of the PCJC may request, to the extent permitted by law.

(b)  The Department of the Treasury shall provide funding and administrative support for the PCJC to the extent permitted by law and within existing appropriations.

(c)  Members of the PCJC shall serve without compensation but may receive transportation expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by law for persons serving intermittently in the Government (5 U.S.C. 5701 5707), consistent with the availability of funds.

Sec. 4.  Termination.  The PCJC shall terminate 2 years after the date of this order unless extended by the President.

Sec. 5.  Revocation of Executive Order 13501.  Executive Order 13501 of February 6, 2009 (Establishing the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board), is hereby revoked.

Sec. 6.  General Provisions.  (a)  Insofar as the Federal Advisory Committee Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. App.) (the "Act"), may apply to the PCJC, any functions of the President under the Act, except for those in section 6 of the Act, shall be performed by the Secretary of the Treasury in accordance with the guidelines that have been issued by the Administrator of General Services.

(b)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

(i)   authority granted by law to a department or agency, or the head thereof; or

(ii)  functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

(c)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

(d)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

BARACK OBAMA

THE WHITE HOUSE,
January 31, 2011.

President Obama Executive Order 13563: Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review

• January 18, 2011

  Executive Order 13563 -- Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review

  
  
  The White House

  Office of the Press Secretary

  For Immediate Release

  January 18, 2011

  Executive Order 13563 -- Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review

      By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to improve regulation and regulatory review, it is hereby ordered as follows:

      Section 1.  General Principles of Regulation.  (a)  Our regulatory system must protect public health, welfare, safety, and our environment while promoting economic growth, innovation, competitiveness, and job creation.  It must be based on the best available science.  It must allow for public participation and an open exchange of ideas.  It must promote predictability and reduce uncertainty.  It must identify and use the best, most innovative, and least burdensome tools for achieving regulatory ends.  It must take into account benefits and costs, both quantitative and qualitative.  It must ensure that regulations are accessible, consistent, written in plain language, and easy to understand.  It must measure, and seek to improve, the actual results of regulatory requirements.

      (b)  This order is supplemental to and reaffirms the principles, structures, and definitions governing contemporary regulatory review that were established in Executive Order 12866 of September 30, 1993.  As stated in that Executive Order and to the extent permitted by law, each agency must, among other things:  (1) propose or adopt a regulation only upon a reasoned determination that its benefits justify its costs (recognizing that some benefits and costs are difficult to quantify); (2) tailor its regulations to impose the least burden on society, consistent with obtaining regulatory objectives, taking into account, among other things, and to the extent practicable, the costs of cumulative regulations; (3) select, in choosing among alternative regulatory approaches, those approaches that maximize net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public health and safety, and other advantages; distributive impacts; and equity); (4) to the extent feasible, specify performance objectives, rather than specifying the behavior or manner of compliance that regulated entities must adopt; and (5) identify and assess available alternatives to direct regulation, including providing economic incentives to encourage the desired behavior, such as user fees or marketable permits, or providing information upon which choices can be made by the public.

      (c)  In applying these principles, each agency is directed to use the best available techniques to quantify anticipated

  present and future benefits and costs as accurately as possible.  Where appropriate and permitted by law, each agency may consider (and discuss qualitatively) values that are difficult or impossible to quantify, including equity, human dignity, fairness, and distributive impacts.

      Sec. 2.  Public Participation.  (a)  Regulations shall be adopted through a process that involves public participation.  To that end, regulations shall be based, to the extent feasible and consistent with law, on the open exchange of information and perspectives among State, local, and tribal officials, experts in relevant disciplines, affected stakeholders in the private sector, and the public as a whole.

      (b)  To promote that open exchange, each agency, consistent with Executive Order 12866 and other applicable legal requirements, shall endeavor to provide the public with an opportunity to participate in the regulatory process.  To the extent feasible and permitted by law, each agency shall afford the public a meaningful opportunity to comment through the Internet on any proposed regulation, with a comment period that should generally be at least 60 days.  To the extent feasible and permitted by law, each agency shall also provide, for both proposed and final rules, timely online access to the rulemaking docket on regulations.gov, including relevant scientific and technical findings, in an open format that can be easily searched and downloaded.  For proposed rules, such access shall include, to the extent feasible and permitted by law, an opportunity for public comment on all pertinent parts of the rulemaking docket, including relevant scientific and technical findings.

      (c)  Before issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking, each agency, where feasible and appropriate, shall seek the views of those who are likely to be affected, including those who are likely to benefit from and those who are potentially subject to such rulemaking.

      Sec. 3.  Integration and Innovation.  Some sectors and industries face a significant number of regulatory requirements, some of which may be redundant, inconsistent, or overlapping.  Greater coordination across agencies could reduce these requirements, thus reducing costs and simplifying and harmonizing rules.  In developing regulatory actions and identifying appropriate approaches, each agency shall attempt to promote such coordination, simplification, and harmonization.  Each agency shall also seek to identify, as appropriate, means to achieve regulatory goals that are designed to promote innovation.

      Sec. 4.  Flexible Approaches.  Where relevant, feasible, and consistent with regulatory objectives, and to the extent permitted by law, each agency shall identify and consider regulatory approaches that reduce burdens and maintain flexibility and freedom of choice for the public.  These approaches include warnings, appropriate default rules, and disclosure requirements as well as provision of information to the public in a form that is clear and intelligible.

      Sec. 5.  Science.  Consistent with the President's Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies,

  "Scientific Integrity" (March 9, 2009), and its implementing guidance, each agency shall ensure the objectivity of any scientific and technological information and processes used to support the agency's regulatory actions.

      Sec. 6.  Retrospective Analyses of Existing Rules.  (a)  To facilitate the periodic review of existing significant regulations, agencies shall consider how best to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome, and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal them in accordance with what has been learned.  Such retrospective analyses, including supporting data, should be released online whenever possible.

      (b)  Within 120 days of the date of this order, each agency shall develop and submit to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs a preliminary plan, consistent with law and its resources and regulatory priorities, under which the agency will periodically review its existing significant regulations to determine whether any such regulations should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed so as to make the agency's regulatory program more effective or less burdensome in achieving the regulatory objectives.

      Sec. 7.  General Provisions.  (a)  For purposes of this order, "agency" shall have the meaning set forth in section 3(b) of Executive Order 12866.

      (b)  Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:

      (i) authority granted by law to a department or agency, or the head thereof; or

      (ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.

      (c)  This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.

      (d)  This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

  BARACK OBAMA

  THE WHITE HOUSE,
  January 18, 2011.