This section of the FEDERAL REGISTER

contains notices to the public of the proposed

issuance of rules and regulations. The

purpose of these notices is to give interested

persons an opportunity to participate in the

rule making prior to the adoption of the final

rules.

Proposed Rules Federal Register

15224 

Vol. 76, No. 54 

Monday, March 21, 2011 

DEPARTMENT OF LABOR 

5 CFR Chapter XLII 

20 CFR Chapters IV, V, VI, VII, and IX 

29 CFR Subtitle A and Chapters II, IV, 

V, XVII, and XXV 

30 CFR Chapter I 

41 CFR Chapters 50, 60, and 61 

48 CFR Chapter 29 

Reducing Regulatory Burden; 

Retrospective Review Under E.O. 

13563 

AGENCY: Office of the Secretary, Labor. 

ACTION: Request for Information. 

SUMMARY: In response to the President’s 

Executive Order 13563 on improving 

regulation and regulatory review, the 

Department of Labor (DOL or the 

Department) is preparing a preliminary 

plan to review its existing significant 

regulations. The purpose of this notice 

is to invite public comment on how the 

Department can improve any of its 

significant regulations by modifying, 

streamlining, expanding, or repealing 

them. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before March 31, 2011. 

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments 

through the Department’s Regulations 

Portal at http://www.dol.gov/ 

regulations/regreview.htm. 

All comments will be available for 

public inspection at http://www.dol.gov/ 

regulations/regreview.htm. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: e. 

christi cunningham, Associate Assistant 

Secretary for Regulatory Policy, U.S. 

Department of Labor, 200 Constitution 

Avenue, NW., Room S–2312, 

Washington, DC 20210, 

cunningham.christi@dol.gov, (202) 693– 

5959 (this is not a toll-free number). 

Individuals with hearing impairments 

may call 1–800–877–8339 (TTY/TDD). 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On 

January 18, 2011, President Obama 

issued Executive Order 13563, 

‘‘Improving Regulation and Regulatory 

Review.’’ The Order explains the 

Administration’s goal of creating a 

regulatory system that protects ‘‘public 

health, welfare, safety, and our 

environment while promoting economic 

growth, innovation, competitiveness, 

and job creation’’ while using ‘‘the best, 

most innovative, and least burdensome 

tools to achieve regulatory ends.’’ The 

Executive Order requires agencies to 

develop and submit a preliminary plan 

within 120 days from the January 18 

issuance date that explains how each 

agency will review existing significant 

regulations to identify whether any 

regulations may be made more effective 

or less burdensome. 

Request for Comments 

As a first step in developing its 

regulatory review plan, the Department 

is requesting public comment on how 

the Department can increase the 

effectiveness of its significant 

regulations while minimizing the 

burden on regulated entities. The 

Department recognizes the knowledge of 

programs and their implementing 

regulations that exists within our 

regulated communities, academia and 

the public, and therefore is requesting 

public comment on how the Department 

can foster, promote, and develop the 

welfare of the wage earners, job seekers, 

and retirees of the United States; 

improve working conditions; advance 

opportunities for profitable 

employment; and assure work-related 

benefits and rights in ways that are more 

effective and less burdensome. 

This request for public input will 

inform development of the Department’s 

plan to review its existing significant 

regulations. To facilitate receipt of the 

information, the Department has created 

an Internet portal specifically designed 

to capture your input and suggestions, 

http://www.dol.gov/regulations/ 

regreview.htm. The portal contains a 

series of questions designed to gather 

information on how DOL can best meet 

the requirements of the Executive Order. 

The portal will be open to receive 

comments from March 16, 2011 through 

March 31, 2011. 

Questions for the Public 

The Department intends the questions 

on the portal to represent a starting 

point for discussion of the criteria that 

can be used to prioritize its regulatory 

review. The questions are meant to 

initiate public dialogue, and are not 

intended to restrict the issues that may 

be raised or addressed. The questions 

were developed with the intent to probe 

a range of areas, including tools that can 

be used to prioritize regulations for 

review; strategies that can be used to 

increase flexibility of regulations; and 

ensuring scientific integrity of data. 

Please note that these questions do not 

pertain to DOL rulemakings currently 

open for public comment. To comment 

on an open rulemaking, please visit 

regulations.gov and submit comments 

by the deadline indicated in that 

rulemaking. 

When addressing these questions, the 

Department requests that commenters 

identify with specificity the regulation 

or reporting requirement at issue, 

providing legal citation(s) where 

available. The Department also requests 

that submitters provide, in as much 

detail as possible, an explanation of 

why a regulation or reporting 

requirement should be modified, 

streamlined, expanded, or repealed, as 

well as specific suggestions of ways the 

Department can better achieve its 

regulatory objectives. Whenever 

possible, please provide empirical 

evidence and data to support your 

response. 

The Department will consider public 

comment as we develop this plan to 

periodically review the Department’s 

significant rules. The Department is 

issuing this request solely to seek useful 

information as it develops its review 

plan. While responses to this request do 

not bind the Department to any further 

actions related to the response, all 

submissions will be made available to 

the public on http://www.dol.gov/ 

regulations/regreview.htm. 

Authority: E.O. 13653, 76 FR 3821, Jan. 

21, 2011; E.O. 12866, 58 FR 51735, Oct. 4, 

1993. 

Dated: March 15, 2011. 

Seth D. Harris, 

Deputy Secretary. 

[FR Doc. 2011–6576 Filed 3–18–11; 8:45 am] 

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