About ORACBA
ORACBA contributes to achieving Departmental priorities through the review of major regulations proposed by USDA to ensure they are based on rigorous scientific and economic analysis. ORACBA reviews analysis supporting regulation as part of the internal Departmental review of regulations. Ensuring that supporting analysis is rigorous and credible makes the Department’s regulations much easier to defend, both to the public and in the courts. This function involves reviewing the risk assessment (when available), cost-benefit analysis, and draft rule for each proposed (and draft final) rule (or rule going through deregulation) to ensure they meet current guidelines and analytic principles, clearly articulates the reason for the rule, and are sufficiently documented to withstand challenges during the comment period. In addition, ORACBA also reviews the regulations and supporting analyses of other Federal Agencies as part of the interagency regulatory review process governed by Executive Order 12866 to Ensure that USDA’s interests are represented in the Office of Management and Budget interagency reviews.
As part of both the internal and interagency review processes, ORACBA provides suggestions to the regulating agencies on how their supporting analysis can be improved.
ORACBA staff often provide guidance to agency analysts and can be actively involved in the conduct of analysis in support of individual Agency regulations. ORACBA seeks to support the various rulemaking Agencies within USDA as they pursue the priorities of the Secretary and the Administration. This includes promoting safe, abundant, affordable food and agricultural supplies in the U.S., promoting energy independence, promoting, and enhancing programmatic efficiencies (such as in the distribution of food aid), supporting farmers, ranchers, and producers, enhancing competitiveness, and promoting healthy food and nutrition choices.
The Office also reviews early hazard analysis of EPA agencies, where the resulting toxicity value often becomes the basis for future risk assessment at the national and impacts regulation at the state level that could have major implications to agriculture due to potential restrictions on pesticide use, fertilizer use, other inputs to production, and the ability to sell agricultural products both domestically and abroad.
