Presidential Documents

3821 

Federal Register 

Vol. 76, No. 14 

Friday, January 21, 2011 

Title 3— 

The President 

Executive Order 13563 of January 18, 2011 

Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review 

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the 

laws of the United States of America, and in order to improve regulation 

and regulatory review, it is hereby ordered as follows: 

Section 1. General Principles of Regulation. (a) Our regulatory system must 

protect public health, welfare, safety, and our environment while promoting 

economic growth, innovation, competitiveness, and job creation. It must 

be based on the best available science. It must allow for public participation 

and an open exchange of ideas. It must promote predictability and reduce 

uncertainty. It must identify and use the best, most innovative, and least 

burdensome tools for achieving regulatory ends. It must take into account 

benefits and costs, both quantitative and qualitative. It must ensure that 

regulations are accessible, consistent, written in plain language, and easy 

to understand. It must measure, and seek to improve, the actual results 

of regulatory requirements. 

(b) This order is supplemental to and reaffirms the principles, structures, 

and definitions governing contemporary regulatory review that were established in Executive Order 12866 of September 30, 1993. As stated in that 

Executive Order and to the extent permitted by law, each agency must, 

among other things: (1) propose or adopt a regulation only upon a reasoned 

determination that its benefits justify its costs (recognizing that some benefits 

and costs are difficult to quantify); (2) tailor its regulations to impose the 

least burden on society, consistent with obtaining regulatory objectives, taking 

into account, among other things, and to the extent practicable, the costs 

of cumulative regulations; (3) select, in choosing among alternative regulatory 

approaches, those approaches that maximize net benefits (including potential 

economic, environmental, public health and safety, and other advantages; 

distributive impacts; and equity); (4) to the extent feasible, specify performance objectives, rather than specifying the behavior or manner of compliance 

that regulated entities must adopt; and (5) identify and assess available 

alternatives to direct regulation, including providing economic incentives 

to encourage the desired behavior, such as user fees or marketable permits, 

or providing information upon which choices can be made by the public. 

(c) In applying these principles, each agency is directed to use the best 

available techniques to quantify anticipated present and future benefits and 

costs as accurately as possible. Where appropriate and permitted by law, 

each agency may consider (and discuss qualitatively) values that are difficult 

or impossible to quantify, including equity, human dignity, fairness, and 

distributive impacts. 

Sec. 2. Public Participation. (a) Regulations shall be adopted through a 

process that involves public participation. To that end, regulations shall 

be based, to the extent feasible and consistent with law, on the open exchange 

of information and perspectives among State, local, and tribal officials, experts in relevant disciplines, affected stakeholders in the private sector, 

and the public as a whole. 

(b) To promote that open exchange, each agency, consistent with Executive 

Order 12866 and other applicable legal requirements, shall endeavor to 

provide the public with an opportunity to participate in the regulatory 

process. To the extent feasible and permitted by law, each agency shall 

afford the public a meaningful opportunity to comment through the Internet 

on any proposed regulation, with a comment period that should generally 


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3822 Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 14 / Friday, January 21, 2011 / Presidential Documents 

be at least 60 days. To the extent feasible and permitted by law, each 

agency shall also provide, for both proposed and final rules, timely online 

access to the rulemaking docket on regulations.gov, including relevant scientific and technical findings, in an open format that can be easily searched 

and downloaded. For proposed rules, such access shall include, to the 

extent feasible and permitted by law, an opportunity for public comment 

on all pertinent parts of the rulemaking docket, including relevant scientific 

and technical findings. 

(c) Before issuing a notice of proposed rulemaking, each agency, where 

feasible and appropriate, shall seek the views of those who are likely to 

be affected, including those who are likely to benefit from and those who 

are potentially subject to such rulemaking. 

Sec. 3. Integration and Innovation. Some sectors and industries face a significant number of regulatory requirements, some of which may be redundant, 

inconsistent, or overlapping. Greater coordination across agencies could reduce these requirements, thus reducing costs and simplifying and harmonizing rules. In developing regulatory actions and identifying appropriate 

approaches, each agency shall attempt to promote such coordination, simplification, and harmonization. Each agency shall also seek to identify, as 

appropriate, means to achieve regulatory goals that are designed to promote 

innovation. 

Sec. 4. Flexible Approaches. Where relevant, feasible, and consistent with 

regulatory objectives, and to the extent permitted by law, each agency shall 

identify and consider regulatory approaches that reduce burdens and maintain flexibility and freedom of choice for the public. These approaches 

include warnings, appropriate default rules, and disclosure requirements 

as well as provision of information to the public in a form that is clear 

and intelligible. 

Sec. 5. Science. Consistent with the President’s Memorandum for the Heads 

of Executive Departments and Agencies, ‘‘Scientific Integrity’’ (March 9, 2009), 

and its implementing guidance, each agency shall ensure the objectivity 

of any scientific and technological information and processes used to support 

the agency’s regulatory actions. 

Sec. 6. Retrospective Analyses of Existing Rules. (a) To facilitate the periodic 

review of existing significant regulations, agencies shall consider how best 

to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, 

insufficient, or excessively burdensome, and to modify, streamline, expand, 

or repeal them in accordance with what has been learned. Such retrospective 

analyses, including supporting data, should be released online whenever 

possible. 

(b) Within 120 days of the date of this order, each agency shall develop 

and submit to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs a preliminary 

plan, consistent with law and its resources and regulatory priorities, under 

which the agency will periodically review its existing significant regulations 

to determine whether any such regulations should be modified, streamlined, 

expanded, or repealed so as to make the agency’s regulatory program more 

effective or less burdensome in achieving the regulatory objectives. 

Sec. 7. General Provisions. (a) For purposes of this order, ‘‘agency’’ shall 

have the meaning set forth in section 3(b) of Executive Order 12866. 

(b) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: 

(i) authority granted by law to a department or agency, or the head 

thereof; or 

(ii) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget 

relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals. 

(c) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and 

subject to the availability of appropriations. 


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Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 14 / Friday, January 21, 2011 / Presidential Documents 3823 

(d) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or 

benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any 

party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its 

officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. 

THE WHITE HOUSE, 

January 18, 2011. 

[FR Doc. 2011–1385 

Filed 1–20–11; 8:45 am] 

Billing code 3195–W1–P 


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