The Regulatory Information Service Center (the Center) compiles the semi-annual Unified Agenda for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The Center provides information about Federal regulatory and deregulatory activity to the President and his Executive Office, the Congress, agency managers, and the public.
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is responsible for overseeing the Federal Government's regulatory, paperwork, and information resource management activities, including implementation of Executive Order 12866, entitled "Regulatory Planning and Review" (September 30, 1993; published at 58 FR 51735, October 4, 1993).
The Unified Agenda provides uniform reporting of data on regulatory and deregulatory activities under development throughout the Federal Government, covering over 60 departments, agencies, and commissions. Each edition of the Unified Agenda includes regulatory agendas from all Federal entities that currently have regulations under development or review. Agencies of the United States Congress are not included.
The agency agendas do not include regulations that are outside the coverage of Executive Order 12866, such as those concerning military or foreign affairs functions and regulations related solely to agency organization, management, or personnel matters. The activities included in the agency agendas are primarily those currently planned to have an ANPRM, NPRM, or Final Rule issued within the next 12 months. However, to keep readers better informed of opportunities for participation in the rulemaking process, an agency may list in the "Long-Term Actions" section of its agenda those rules it expects will have the next regulatory action more than 12 months after publication of the agenda. When an agency subsequently schedules a regulatory action on one of these rules within a 12-month timeframe, the item will reappear in the appropriate section of the agency's next agenda.
The Regulatory Flexibility Act (5 U.S.C. 601) requires that agencies publish regulatory agendas identifying those rules that may have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. Agencies meet that requirement by including the information in their submissions for this publication.
Executive Order 12866 and the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (P.L. 104-4) direct agencies to assess the effects of Federal regulations on State, local, and tribal governments. Executive Order 13132 entitled "Federalism" (August 4, 1999, 64 FR 43255) directs agencies to have an accountable process to ensure meaningful and timely input by State and local officials in the development of regulatory policies that have "federalism implications." This term refers to actions "that have substantial direct effects on the States, on the relationship between the national government and the States, or on the distribution of power and responsibilities among the various levels of government."
To further these efforts, agencies include in their submissions for the Unified Agenda information on whether their regulatory actions have an effect on various levels of government. In addition, agencies other than independent regulatory agencies include information on whether their regulatory actions have federalism implications or are subject to the Unfunded Mandates Act.
The Unified Agenda is produced through a computer system designed and maintained by the Center with the advice and assistance of the Government Printing Office. The system was designed to save agencies time and money by automating the preparation and printing of their required agendas in a uniform format, as well as providing tables of contents and indexes for the publication.
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