Office Of Management And Budget (OMB) Unified Agenda
On Friday, January 20, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released the Fall 2011 Semiannual Unified Agenda of Regulatory Actions for Federal Agencies, which outlines the rulemaking actions currently under development in each federal agency. The attached chart summarizes the major actions planned by FDA, FSIS, GIPSA, AMS, APHIS, and FNS that may be of particular interest to the food industry. Items in bold are new since the Regulatory Agendas were last issued in July 2011. More information can be found by clicking on the blue link next to each item, which will take you to the applicable page on OMB’s Regulatory Agenda website.
The dates included in the unified agenda are not commitments to act on or by the date shown and simply indicate the agencies’ projections, which are met infrequently. Rather than focusing on projected dates, this unified agenda is a valuable tool to identify the rulemaking proceedings that the agencies consider to be a priority. For FSMA implementation, the above rulemaking list is consistent with the priorities FDA has been articulating since the law was enacted in January 2011. The agenda indicates that proposed rules on preventive controls for food and feed, the foreign supplier verification program, and produce safety will be issued in the near future, with a proposed rule on accreditation of third-party auditors to follow.