There will be no “regulatory tsunami” from President Obama’s administration next year, the White House budget office insisted on Friday.
The claim came as the Office of Management and Budget released its annual regulatory agenda, which sets regulatory priorities for the upcoming year and announces rules that each agency plans to consider.
The new regulatory book actually includes “fewer economically significant active rulemakings from executive agencies compared to the previous two agendas,” a senior administration official insisted.
This is despite pending rules included in the agenda that come from the president’s healthcare and financial reform laws.
The statistic “makes clear that there is no ‘regulatory tsunami’ coming from this administration,” the senior administration official said in a written statement.
Tom Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, coined the “regulatory tsunami” in a speech last year. He singled out the healthcare and Wall Street reform measures as being threats to the U.S. economy.
Business groups complain a backlog of old regulations still in the administration pipeline combined with new regulations on the way from two of Obama’s biggest first-term legislative achievements threaten to keep the nation’s economic recovery sluggish.
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