OIRA, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, located in the White House Office of Management and Budget, is the nation’s gatekeeper over federal regulatory activity. All executive branch agencies are prohibited from releasing economically significant regulations without first submitting their regulations to OIRA for review.

In the performance of this duty, OIRA is often maligned by one or more parties affected by it decisions. Unfortunately the nation as whole, which is the beneficiary of OIRA decisions, seldom speaks in its defense.

OIRA recently celebrated its thirty-fifth birthday; ORIA@2050 is a program designed to ensure that OIRA is around thirty-five years from now and that it is operating free of prejudicial constraints.

Three components of OIRA@2050 of immediate concern is the responsibility OIRA has in the following areas:

Prevention of the Issuance of Midnight Regulations

The Rebirth of the Data Quality Act

The Implementation of a Regulatory Budget

Interested parties should express their support for OIRA by making their views known to their legislators and the media.

Editor's note: Per the author's request, this article first published on the Yale Journal on Regulation's blog on January 27, 2016.

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