36 CFR Part 1190, Proposed Accessibility Guidelines for Pedestrian Facilities in the Public Right-of-Way: Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)

Executive Orders 12866 and 13563

The Office of Management and Budget has reviewed this proposed rule pursuant to Executive Orders 12866 and 13563.⁴⁷  The Access Board prepared a regulatory assessment of the potential costs and benefits of the proposed rule. The regulatory assessment is available on the Access Board website at: http://www.access-board.gov/prowac/index.htm, and is also available in the regulatory docket at http://www.regulations.gov. The information in the regulatory assessment is discussed in the preamble under Impacts on State and Local Governments and under the relevant requirements in the Section-by-Section Analysis. The information in the regulatory assessment is also summarized in the tables below, As indicated in the tables below, the regulatory assessment does not include estimates of the total annual costs for two of the requirements in the proposed guidelines that will have more than minimal impacts because information is not available to estimate the costs. Questions are included in the preamble seeking additional information to assist the Board to estimate the total annual costs of these two requirements and to refine the cost estimates for the other requirements in the proposed guidelines. Consequently, the Access Board has not determined whether the proposed guidelines are an economically significant regulatory action.⁴⁸  The Access Board will analyze the information received in response to the questions in the preamble. When the final guidelines are issued, the Access Board will revise the regulatory assessment and determine whether the guidelines are an economically significant regulatory action.

⁴⁷Executive Orders 12866 and 13563 establish and reaffirm principles of regulation that direct federal agencies among other things to: “(1) propose or adopt a regulation only upon a reasoned determination that its benefits justify its costs (recognizing that some benefits and costs are difficult to quantify); (2) tailor its regulations to impose the least burden on society, consistent with obtaining regulatory objectives, taking into account, among other things, and to the extent practicable, the costs of cumulative regulations; (3) select, in choosing among alternative regulatory approaches, those approaches that maximize net benefits (including potential economic, environmental, public health and safety, and other advantages; distributive impacts; and equity); (4) to the extent feasible, specify performance objectives, rather than specifying the behavior or manner of compliance that regulated entities must adopt; and (5) identify and assess available alternatives to direct regulation, including providing economic incentives to encourage the desired behavior, such as user fees or marketable permits, or providing information upon which choices can be made by the public.” Executive Order 13563, section 1 (b).

⁴⁸A regulatory action is economically significant if it is anticipated to “[h]ave an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more” or to “adversely affect in a material way the economy, a sector of the economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, public health or safety, or State, local, or tribal government communities.” Executive Order 12866, section 2 (f) (1).