Regulatory Agendas & Regulatory Plans
Twice a year, a number of federal agencies combine efforts to publish a comprehensive report describing regulations currently under development or recently completed. These reports are bundled together and published as the Unified Agenda. Once a year, a Regulatory Plan is released along with the Unified Agenda. EPA contributes to each publication. You may access our Semiannual Regulatory Agenda and Annual Regulatory Plan in a number of ways.
- Download our Agenda and Plan books from this Web page
- Search RegInfo.gov
- Read those parts of the Plan & Agenda published in the Federal Register (FR)
- Background - Are you not sure what our Regulatory Plan and Agenda are? Do you wonder why there are so many ways to access the Plan and Agenda? Read our background information at the bottom of this page.
Download Our Agenda and Plan Books
We provide books that compiles all of EPA's Agenda and Plan information. We have broken each book into parts to help you obtain faster download times. You will need the free Adobe Reader to view the files on this page. See EPA's PDF page to learn more.
2008 Regulatory Agenda |
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Fall 2008 - EPA Regulatory Plan and Semiannual Regulatory AgendaFull Book - Fall 2008 Regulatory Plan and Semiannual Regulatory Agenda (PDF) (180 pp, 2MB) |
Spring 2008 - EPA Semiannual Regulatory AgendaFull Book - Spring 2008 Semiannual Regulatory Agenda (PDF) (159 pp, 2.97MB) |
2006 Regulatory Agendas and Plan |
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Fall 2006 - EPA Regulatory Plan and Semiannual Regulatory AgendaFull Book - Fall 2006 Regulatory Plan and Semiannual Regulatory Agenda (PDF) (191 pp, 2.65MB) Since this is a large document, you may wish to open it in three parts for faster download: |
Background
Many federal agencies publish regulatory plans and agendas in accordance with Executive Order 12866 (58 FR 51735). EPA's Regulatory Plan describes the most important regulatory and deregulatory actions that we reasonably expect to issue in proposed or final form during the upcoming fiscal year. These are the regulatory actions that embody the core of our regulatory priorities. Our Regulatory Plan is published once a year along with the Fall Semiannual Regulatory Agenda. Generally, both are available sometime around October - December.
EPA's Semiannual Regulatory Agenda describes a broader universe of regulatory activities under development or review. Included are regulations and certain major policy documents. However, there is no legal significance to the omission of an item from the Agenda, and we generally do not include minor amendments or actions such as changes of address, delegations of authority to states under the Clean Air Act, and pesticide tolerances under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. (A full explanation of actions that are excluded is in the Agenda's preamble.)
Our Semiannual Regulatory Agenda is published twice a year. As mentioned above, the Fall version includes the Regulatory Plan and is released sometime around October - December. The Spring version is published sometime around April or May. Many other federal agencies produce agendas and plans, just like we do. The General Services Administration's Regulatory Information Service Center (RISC) compiles all of them into a Regulatory Plan and Unified Agenda.
You can access EPA's Agenda and Plan in two ways:
- Download our Agenda and Plan books from this page.
- Access an electronic version at RegInfo.gov - This is probably the easiest place for you to search for a specific rule. Choose "Environmental Protection Agency" from the drop-down menu provided, and then select a specific regulation to view its details. RegInfo's Search page allows for advanced searching.
One final way to access EPA's Agendas and Plans is through the Federal Register (FR). We provide a Web page where you can view Agenda-related FR publications and find tips for searching them. But please keep in mind that, as the E-Agenda comes online, federal agencies are publishing less of their agendas and plans in the FR. Starting with Fall 2007, only statutorily required information -- and not the full agenda -- is printed in the FR.