Today, the Office of Management and Budget via the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs published the Spring Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions . This bi-annual publication informs the public of regulations under consideration or planned by federal agencies.  Agencies are not bound by these postings, but transparency in the rulemaking process is important and, as such, the Unified Agenda is an important regulatory guide.

Continue Reading OMB/OIRA Publishes the Spring 2018 Unified Agenda of Regulatory Actions

On May 22, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the bi-annual Spring 2019 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions.

As set forth in a Federal Register notice and using the Department of Homeland Security as an example, the Unified Agenda is explained as follows:

This regulatory agenda is a semiannual summary of projected regulations, existing regulations, and completed actions of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its components. This agenda provides the public with information about DHS’s regulatory and deregulatory activity. DHS expects that this information will enable the public to be more aware of, and effectively participate in, the Department’s regulatory and deregulatory activity. DHS invites the public to submit comments on any aspect of this agenda.

As such, these agency submissions are snapshots in time and estimates of pending timelines by the agency, which can change based on many factors.  

Staying with the Department of Homeland Security/USCIS for example purposes, a few rules in final rule stage include, among others:

Find past reporting on the OMB Unified Agenda Here

Please check back as we post additional information on the Spring Unified Agenda and other matters as events and new information warrants.

On Jan. 17, The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (The CRE), a Washington D.C. administrative watchdog group, filed a petition with the Department of Homeland Security to reform the EB-5 program to create jobs in rural America and areas of high unemployment.  In making the announcement, The CRE posted:

Continue Reading Center for Regulatory Effectiveness Petitions DHS for Rulemaking to Reform EB-5

On Dec. 14, the Office of Management and Budget Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OMB) published the biennial Unified Agenda.  A long-standing outgrowth of previous regulatory reform efforts, the Unified Agenda offers the public the “current thinking” of federal agencies on upcoming Agency regulatory priorities.

Of importance to the immigration community, DHS USCIS posed the following regulatory priorities-

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is the government agency that oversees lawful immigration to the United States. USCIS’s role is to efficiently adjudicate and manage petitions, applications, and requests for immigration benefits for foreign nationals seeking lawful immigration status in the United States and for individuals seeking to become citizens of the United States, and other matters within the jurisdiction of the agency, in a manner that detects, deters, and prevents fraud, protects the jobs and working conditions of American workers as appropriate, and ensures the national security, public safety, and welfare of the American people. In the coming year, USCIS will promulgate several regulatory and deregulatory actions to directly support these commitments and goals. Continue Reading OMB OIRA Releases Unified Agenda and USCIS Regulatory Priorities, Including H-1B, EB-5, and More

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the Fall Unified Agenda, updating the Improvement of the Employment Creation Immigrant Regulations.  DHS has now moved the stage of rulemaking from “long-term actions” to “proposed rule stage.”  This new release also changes the date of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) from “to be determined” to January 2017.  To read the full text of the release, please view the Spring 2016 update.

In addition, Statement of Need,  Summary of the Legal Basis, and Anticipated Costs and Benefits sections have been added. Of note under “Anticipated Costs and Benefits” is that “the rule would benefit entrepreneurs seeking to participate in the program by providing the opportunity to mitigate the harsh consequences of unexpected changes to business conditions through priority date retention in limited circumstances.”

Greenberg Traurig will continue to monitor this activity and will provide an update as soon as the proposed rules are published.