A new report from independent watchdog OMB Watch criticizes the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for not following its own dictates of openness and transparency.

OIRA, located within the Office of Management and Budget, has a leadership role within government in implementing the Obama administration's Open Government Directive requiring agencies to maintain open government plans and release high value data sets.

But, the report, released Jan. 6, says the OIRA data posted onto data.gov "was already available and downloadable on a separate government website."

The report also finds OIRA isn't particularly more transparent now than under the Bush administration. Now, and then, OIRA posts online a list of individuals with whom it and rulemaking agencies have met while a rule is under review. "However, little information is provided about the substance of the meetings," the report states.

"Neither OIRA nor agencies typically make available the communications or edits that occur during the review of draft proposed or final regulations. Unless an agency chooses to disclose its dealings with OIRA in the online rulemaking docket, it is nearly impossible for the public to determine what impact OIRA--or other agencies participating in the interagency review--have had on the rules," the report adds.

OIRA also gets criticism for only having made minor progress in reforming e-rulemaking. In the absence of a broader White House directive, agencies wishing to reform their e-rulemaking practices have had to do so alone, the report says. As a result, some agencies favor creation of stand-alone e-rulemaking sites at the potential expense of the governmentwide systems Federal Docket Management System and Regulations.gov, both managed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the report says. In fact, the EPA itself has launched its own agency specific e-rulemaking interface, called the Rulemaking Gateway.  

The report's larger point is that the Obama administration has not fulfilled expectations among some of a new regulatory process. Although the tone of the Obama OIRA is very different from that of the Bush administration, the report says, activity (.pdf) in 2009 that looked like a precursor to an executive order that would lay out a major revision to the regulatory process never came to fruition.

"OMB Watch has long believed that OIRA should end rule-by-rule, transactional review of regulations. Instead, OIRA should play a coordinating role in helping agencies with their regulatory work, including sharing comments from other agencies and raising questions for agencies to consider. But the OIRA yes-or-no authority on each rule should end," the report states.

For more
- download the OMB Watch report, "The Obama Approach to Public Protection: The Regulatory Process." (.pdf)
- download the Open Government Directive (.pdf)

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