Tqming Omb: or Why Regulatory Review under Executive Order 12291 Works so Poorly and What President Clinton Can Do about It

1 During the Bush Administration, OMB served as a "clearinghouse," collecting comments received from other agencies, members of the White House staff and other entities within the Executive Branch and transmitting them to EPA. In the balance of this article, references to OMB should be understood as referring to comments originating elsewhere in the Executive Branch and passed through OMB. No feature of modern American government has been more controversial over the last decade than "review" of proposed and final agency rules by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget ("OMB") and other parts of the Executive Office of the President. 1 And yet, despite all the controversy, no President, not Bill Clinton and probably not even Ross Perot, would dream of abolishing review of agency actions by OMB (or some other entity within the Executive Branch, however constituted or named). The reason is a simple one, aptly stated by Clark Clifford: "If the President does not