Obama signs regulatory strategy to foster employment

A new Executive Order by US President Barack Obama has laid down regulatory measures on Tuesday to promote the country's economic growth and foster job creation while protecting the health and well-being of Americans throughout effective regulations.

In an op-ed in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, the President said that he wants to strike the right balance between promoting the economic growth and protecting the public.

He has also passed an order to all Federal agencies to conduct a thorough review of any existing regulations that hurt economic growth and repress job creation. It stipulates that the regulatory agencies should submit a plan to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs within 120 days of the date of the order.

Over the past two years, the goal of my administration has been to strike the right balance. And today, I am signing an executive order that makes clear that this is the operating principle of our government. This order requires that federal agencies ensure that regulations protect our safety, health and environment while promoting economic growth, wrote the President in the Wall Street Journal's opinion column.

In the last couple of years, the Obama administration's relationship with the country's business section has suffered immensely. This can be partly attributed to the fact that the country has passed too many regulations which, instead of promoting, stifled job creation and economic growth.

A blog released by Jack Lew, Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), on Tuesday outlines the following guiding principles for government agencies when crafting regulation as per the newly signed Executive Order:

• 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.
• Agencies must consider low-cost approaches that reduce burdens and maintain flexibility.? Regulations must be guided by objective scientific evidence.
• Existing regulations must be reviewed to determine that they are still necessary and crafted effectively; if not, they must be modified, streamlined, or repealed.
• Taken together, these principles will create a more effective and cost-efficient regulatory framework. In addition to this EO, the Administration is taking two new steps to promote this balanced approach to regulation.

Lew also stated that the President has asked federal enforcement agencies to make publicly-available compliance information easily accessible, downloadable, and searchable online in order to create a more transparent system. Apart from this, Obama has also issued a memo on regulatory flexibility for small businesses.