The role of the White House Office of Management and Budget in federal rulemaking is expected to come under scrutiny tomorrow as a House panel investigates the regulatory process.

OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, the White House office charged with reviewing agency rules, will be a focal point of the hearing tomorrow before the House Judiciary Committee's Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee.

The hearing comes as the Obama administration prepares to issue its plan for overhauling the regulatory review process. Last February, Obama threw out a George W. Bush-era memo that expanded White House oversight over the rulemaking process. Obama ordered OMB and agency heads to provide a list of suggested changes to the process, specifically addressing the relationship between OIRA and the agencies, increasing transparency, and the role of cost-benefit analysis in rulemaking, among other topics (Greenwire, Feb. 4, 2009).

With a new White House policy, Obama could revoke or revise Clinton's Executive Order 12866, which gives OIRA the power to review and edit agency regulations and makes cost-benefit analyses a significant factor in rulemaking. For major rules, OIRA and federal agencies use cost-benefit analysis to try to ensure that the benefits of regulations outweigh the costs.