Five AGs Filed Comments Urging Administration to Forgo Changes to Regulatory Enforcement

MARCH 16, 2020

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led a coalition of five attorneys general in filing comments in response to a request for information (RFI) published by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) regarding potential “significant reforms” to how federal agencies investigate, enforce and penalize regulatory violations. The comments warned that the RFI will yield “proposals that threaten to hamstring federal agencies’ ability to fulfill their duties to enforce and adjudicate violations,” and emphasized that OMB must provide evidence to justify its actions before proceeding with a rulemaking. The comments urged OMB to seek targeted changes “rather than broadly implementing a proposal that could hinder effective and efficient agency enforcement, with little benefit.”