Within a day after President Barack Obama pledged to eliminate unnecessary federal regulations, two agencies announced an easing of a pair of proposed rules.
The first comes from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which called off a proposal that could have forced businesses to install noise-reducing equipment in loud workplaces. Instead, the agency says it will investigate other ways to protect workers from job-related hearing loss.
In addition, the Food and Drug Administration deferred a plan that could have added regulatory demands for the makers of certain medical devices. Under the proposal, the FDA would have had the ability to order more post-market studies — research on a product after it already is approved and on the market — of the devices.
Obama foreshadowed such announcements with an opinion piece this week in The Wall Street Journal, in which he trumpeted an executive order for a government-wide review of regulations that retarded growth or were “just plain dumb.”
As with the reaction to the president’s executive order, business leaders hailed the agencies’ announcements.
“This is a very positive step forward,” Bill Hawkins, CEO of Medtronic Inc., told The Wall Street Journal. “What’s come out in our judgment is more balanced.”
Consumer advocates were downbeat.
“The FDA has backed down on important safety measures that would have saved lives,” said Diana Zuckerman, president of the group National Research Center for Women and Families, which has lobbied for stricter rules regarding medical devices.
The FDA denied that it was buckling to political pressure. An OSHA spokesman said that the agency’s proposal wouldn’t have imposed too much of a burden on businesses, but the agency said it would now do more “public outreach” to deal with the problem.
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