MPA Administrative Law and Regulatory Policy 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which regulatory approach sets a maximum allowable level of pollution or harm and requires regulated entities to comply, regardless of cost?
- Cost-benefit analysis regulation
- Market-based incentive regulation
- Command-and-control regulation (Correct answer)
- Voluntary compliance programs
Correct answer: Command-and-control regulation
Command-and-control regulation specifies mandatory standards or technology requirements that regulated parties must meet, with government enforcement rather than market-based flexibility.
Question 2: Executive Order 12866, issued in 1993, requires federal agencies to do what before issuing significant regulatory actions?
- Obtain a supermajority vote from the agency's governing board
- Submit the rule for OIRA review and conduct a cost-benefit analysis (Correct answer)
- Seek prior authorization from the Senate Appropriations Committee
- Publish the rule in the Federal Register for 180 days before enactment
Correct answer: Submit the rule for OIRA review and conduct a cost-benefit analysis
EO 12866 requires agencies to submit significant rules to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review and to assess costs and benefits, centralizing White House oversight of the regulatory agenda.
Question 3: The Congressional Review Act (CRA) allows Congress to overturn a final agency rule through:
- A two-thirds supermajority vote in the Senate alone
- A joint resolution of disapproval passed by both chambers and signed (or veto-overridden) by the President (Correct answer)
- A simple majority vote in the House Judiciary Committee
- A petition signed by 30 or more Senators within 60 days
Correct answer: A joint resolution of disapproval passed by both chambers and signed (or veto-overridden) by the President
Under the CRA, Congress may pass a joint resolution of disapproval within a review period; once signed by the President (or enacted over a veto), the rule is nullified and the agency may not issue a substantially similar rule without new statutory authority.
Question 4: Regulatory capture occurs when:
- A regulated industry gains disproportionate influence over the agency meant to oversee it (Correct answer)
- Congress passes legislation that codifies existing agency rules
- An agency successfully enforces regulations against a major corporation
- The President appoints a former regulator to head an agency
Correct answer: A regulated industry gains disproportionate influence over the agency meant to oversee it
Regulatory capture describes a situation in which the regulated industry, through lobbying, information asymmetry, or revolving-door employment, effectively controls the regulatory body, undermining the public-interest purpose of regulation.
Question 5: Which term describes the process by which an agency issues a rule without going through notice-and-comment because the rule is exempt as a policy statement or interpretive guidance?
- Hybrid rulemaking
- Guidance documents or nonlegislative rules (Correct answer)
- Direct final rulemaking
- Interim final rules
Correct answer: Guidance documents or nonlegislative rules
Guidance documents and interpretive rules are exempt from APA notice-and-comment requirements but are criticized for allowing agencies to effectively make binding policy without public participation.
Question 6: Standing to challenge agency action in federal court requires a plaintiff to demonstrate which three elements established in Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife (1992)?
- Intent, causation, and damages exceeding $75,000
- Injury-in-fact, causation (traceability), and redressability (Correct answer)
- Political question, ripeness, and mootness
- Congressional authorization, agency nexus, and finality
Correct answer: Injury-in-fact, causation (traceability), and redressability
The Supreme Court in Lujan held that constitutional standing requires (1) a concrete injury-in-fact, (2) a causal connection between the injury and the challenged conduct, and (3) the likelihood that a favorable decision will redress the injury.
Question 7: The Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) requires federal agencies to analyze the impact of proposed rules on:
- State and local governments only
- Small entities, including small businesses, small nonprofits, and small governmental jurisdictions (Correct answer)
- Foreign corporations operating in the United States
- Federal employees subject to the proposed rule
Correct answer: Small entities, including small businesses, small nonprofits, and small governmental jurisdictions
The RFA requires agencies to prepare a regulatory flexibility analysis assessing the rule's economic impact on small entities and to consider less burdensome alternatives that achieve the regulatory objective.
MPA Administrative Law and Regulatory Policy 2
Which regulatory approach sets a maximum allowable level of pollution or harm and requires regulated entities to comply, regardless of cost?