The Justice Department will form a working group to review DOJ rules and regulations that the public finds cumbersome and unnecessary, department officials said today.
“The Department’s internal working group will review the public comments and conduct a balanced review of the rule or regulation according to these same metrics,” DOJ officials said in a comprehensive regulatory reform proposal required by President Barack Obama. “The working group will also seek input as needed from the component responsible for a particular regulation. After carefully considering both public comment and internal guidance, the working group will consider whether streamlining, repeal, amendment, or expansion is necessary and appropriate. “
The announcement came as the Obama administration rolled out a plan to save businesses some $10 billion by repealing and reducing regulations.
Many departments’ plans appear particularly ambitious. For instance, the Department of Health and Human Services plans to repeal several reporting requirements for health care providers, saving some $4 billion over five years.
However, DOJ officials said that the nature of the department’s work differs greatly from other federal agencies. “The Department of Justice is primarily a law-enforcement agency, not a regulatory agency; it carries out its principal investigative, prosecutorial, and other enforcement activities through means other than the regulatory process,” DOJ officials wrote. “Over the past ten years, the Department has promulgated only a handful of ‘economically significant’ or ‘major’ rules.”
But DOJ officials said the working group will review rules suggested by the public and others. For instance, the department intends to review the possibility of extending the length of certain firearms importation licenses from one to two years. A few other rules the DOJ will review will simply harmonize department rules with those of other agencies.
