Chamber asks independent agencies to commit to Obama’s regulatory review

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pushing for an expansion of the White House's planned review of regulations to include independent federal agencies.

On Tuesday, Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the Chamber, wrote to the heads of 13 different agencies that are not covered by a recent executive order from President Obama that calls for an administration-wide review of regulations. In the letter, Donohue asks that the independent agencies publicly commit to the regulatory review even though they are not obligated to do so.

"I am sure you agree that President Obama has taken an important step toward ensuring more efficient, more balanced government regulation," Donohue wrote. "While we recognize that your agency technically is not subject to the executive order, we ask that you agree publicly to implement the order’s requirements, including undertaking a review of [the agency's] existing regulations to identify those that are overly burdensome or have little benefit."

The Chamber and other business groups have cheered Obama's new executive order dealing with regulations, especially its plan for a government-wide review of existing rules. Several groups have taken the opportunity to push for certain proposals to be axed by the administration.

Labor and others are concerned by the review. They worry that agencies will dedicate their scarce resources to the review instead of enforcing regulations that  they say protect workers' health and safety. 

The 13 agencies Donohue wrote to are the National Credit Union Administration, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Federal Maritime Commission.