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The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) released the Spring 2022 Semiannual Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (“Agenda”) in an August 8th federal register notice. See 87 Fed. Reg. 48332

The Agenda includes information addressing:

• EPA Regulations in the Semiannual Agenda that are under development, completed, or canceled since the last agenda
• EPA review of regulations with small business impacts under Section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act

EPA (and all federal agencies) twice a year produce in combination a comprehensive report describing regulatory actions currently under development or recently completed.

In particular, the Agenda identifies each regulatory action that the federal agency (such as EPA) expects to work on through the next 12 months.

Agenda entries are typically associated with 1 of 5 rule making stages. Two key rule making stages include:

• Proposed Rulemaking stage (indicating that the agency plans to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking or to close an existing comment period)
• Final Rule Stage (indicating that the agency plans to issue a Final Rule)

Each Agenda entry typically provides a variety of information.

Congress, interest groups, regulatory entities, environmental organizations and the general public rely on the Agenda to understand which rules EPA plans to issue in the upcoming year. Nevertheless, the Agenda does not create a legal obligation to adhere to schedules in the publication or limit their regulatory activities to those items that are encompassed by it.

A copy of the Federal Register Notice including the Agenda can be downloaded here.