Memorandum From the President on Improving Government Regulations

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies

Subject: Improving Government Regulations

In order to assure full State and local participation in the development and promulgation of Federal regulations with significant intergovernmental impact, I want the Departments to develop procedures in the following manner:

• I have asked the national organizations representing general purpose State and local governments (including the National Governors' Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Council of State Governments, the National League of Cities, the United States Conference of Mayors, the National Association of Counties, and the International City Management Association) to systematically review the semiannual regulation agendas to be published in the FEDERAL REGISTER by each executive department and agency.

• Any of these national organizations should notify the appropriate executive department or agency if it believes that a regulation included on an agency regulation agenda would have major intergovernmental significance. Notification should be made through the senior intergovernmental officials whose names I announced in a FEDERAL REGISTER notice on September 20, 1977.

• Upon receipt of notification from any of the above named organizations, the agency shall develop a specific plan for consultation with State and local governments in the development of that regulation. Such consultation shall include the solicitation of comments from the above named groups, from other representative organizations and from individual State and local governments as appropriate.

Consistent with my memorandum to you of February 25, 1977, whenever major agency regulations identified as having major intergovernmental significance are submitted to the Office of Management and Budget for review or are published in the FEDERAL REGISTER, those proposed regulations shall be accompanied by a brief description of how State and local governments have been consulted, what the nature of the State and local comments was, and how the agency dealt with such comments.

As you implement the new Executive Order, I expect that you will include in your revised agency procedures, provisions which will institute intergovernmental consultation described in this memorandum.

Because the goals and procedures of the new Order duplicate those of the OMB circular now governing the consultation process, OMB has rescinded it. However, nothing in this memorandum shall be construed as in any way diminishing the affirmative obligation of the executive departments and agencies to actively seek out, encourage, and facilitate the submission of State and local comments in the development of Federal regulations in any other ways appropriate to the agency and the proposed regulation.

JIMMY CARTER