Send significant guidance documents through regulatory review
What the document says“The next President should also revive the directive in Executive Order 13891 that significant guidance documents also must pass through OIRA review.”
Guidance documents are agency statements that are not formal regulations but shape how rules are applied. The chapter says the next President should revive the requirement, from Executive Order 13891, that significant guidance also pass through OIRA review.
What the document actually says“The next President should also revive the directive in Executive Order 13891 that significant guidance documents also must pass through OIRA review.”
The next president should bring back the rule that big guidance papers must be checked too.
Agencies write papers that are not full rules. They still tell people what to do. The book says these should be checked by the White House first.
Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President's "Department of Government Efficiency" Deregulatory Initiative
2025-02-19 · 90 FR 10583
Executive Order 14219 puts guidance documents inside the definition of regulation for the purposes of the order, and then directs in section 4 that agencies continue to follow the processes set out in Executive Order 12866 for submitting regulations to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and consult that office on potential new regulations, which is the substance of what the passage asks for. The fit breaks down because the order does not revive Executive Order 13891, which was revoked in 2021 and stays revoked, and so does not restore that order's separate machinery for significant guidance, including the agency guidance portals and the notice and comment step. It also takes its definition of guidance document from Executive Order 13422 rather than from 13891, and it exempts military, national security, homeland security, foreign affairs and immigration functions along with anything the Director of the Office of Management and Budget chooses to exempt.
The order counts guidance as a rule, so guidance goes to the White House for review. That is the heart of what the chapter asked. But the old order it wanted revived stays dead, along with its web lists and comment step. Whole fields are also left out.