Obama Admin Snubs Deadline to Disclose Second-Term Regulation Plans

The Obama administration missed a statutory deadline to file a key report on its second-term agenda to Congress this Thursday. 

For the second time this year, the White House failed to follow federal law requiring a report outlining the economic impact of its regulatory plans for the next four years. 

Every administration is legally required to publish a report each April and October in the Federal Register to inform Congress and the public of the administration’s regulatory agenda and its potential economic impact. The requirement is part of the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980.

Other administrations have been late, but have never failed to issue the legally required report and Pres. Clinton even issued an Executive Order on compliance.

After the administration failed to produce its April 2012 report, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) wrote to Pres. Obama asking for compliance with the October deadline – to no avail. . .

The last time the Obama administration complied with this law was when it published its fall 2011 report (due in October).

Conservatives quickly pounced on the administration’s refusal to comply with the law. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) remarked:

President Obama is refusing to comply with the law that requires him to publish forthcoming regulations because he doesn’t want the American public to know the terrible cost of the regulatory barrage he plans to unleash in a second term.

The administration’s failure to comply with the law comes as little surprise to many of its critics. Constitutional law professor Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit often declares that, as far as the Obama administration is concerned, “laws are just for the little people.”

Conservative fundraising legend Richard Viguerie wrote in his recent book, The Law that Governs Government, that “the political establishment is now openly contemptuous in its high profile law breaking.”