Virginia’s Regulatory Process: Now Transparent & Accountable

Governor Youngkin today signed Executive Order #19 establishing the Office of Regulatory Management within the Office of the Governor to provide transparency, streamline regulatory management and fulfill Governor Youngkin’s commitment to reduce 25% of Virginia’s regulatory burdens.

“Last year, I pledged to Virginians that we would remove 25% of the regulatory requirements in the Commonwealth. In the spirit of this objective, we have created the Office of Regulatory Management, led by Andrew Wheeler, which will create much needed transparency and efficiency in Virginia’s regulatory process to ensure that we have a government that works for the citizens of the Commonwealth,” said Governor Youngkin.

The Office of Regulatory Management (ORM) will streamline regulatory activities across the executive branch and manage cross-departmental functions such as regulations, permits, and grants. The ORM will review all agency regulations and initiate the “Unified Regulatory Plan” by which all agencies will annually publish a publicly available list of all expected regulations for the upcoming year. This Executive Order also calls for tracking new regulatory requirements for each new effective regulation and reviewing all existing regulations every four years.

This Executive Order enhances transparency by requiring posting of all proposed regulations on Virginia’s Regulatory Town Hall website. The new regulatory review process will require agencies to conduct cost-benefit and other analyses of their proposed regulations to ensure they are not overly burdensome on other public bodies or private citizens.