President Obama signed Executive Order 13563, Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review, on January 18, 2011. In the Order, the President states:

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 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.

Accordingly, Executive Order 13563 among other things, calls on agencies to promote public participation and an 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.

The Order also emphasizes the importance of retrospective analysis of rules with its "look back" requirement, which states that "within 120 days of the date of this order, each agency shall develop...a preliminary plan." The plans should "facilitate the periodic review of existing significant regulations" and "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."

President's Executive Order 13563 (49 KB)

Executive Order 13563 Guidance Memorandum (93 KB)

Retrospective Analysis Guidance Memorandum (124 KB)

Learn about agencies' plans and visit here often to stay up to date.