Regulatory Improvement and Accountability Act of 1992

Regulatory Improvement and Accountability Act of 1992 - Amends the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 to add as purposes of such Act: (1) reducing regulatory burdens to promote national economic growth, productivity, competitiveness, and general welfare; (2) increasing agency regulatory accountability; (3) providing for presidential oversight of the regulatory process; (4) minimizing duplication and conflict of regulations; and (5) ensuring well-reasoned regulations.

Revises the definition of "burden" to include the time, effort, or financial resources expended to comply with a regulation.

Defines "major rule" as any regulation that is likely to result in: (1) an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; (2) a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, Federal, State, or local government agencies, or geographic regions; or (3) significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or on the ability of the United States-based enterprises to compete with foreign-based enterprises in domestic or export markets.

Defines "regulation" and "rule" as an agency statement of general applicability and future effect designed to implement, interpret, or prescribe law or policy or describing the procedure or practice requirements of an agency, excluding: (1) certain administrative actions; (2) regulations issued with respect to a military or foreign affairs function of the United States; or (3) regulations related to agency organization, management, or personnel.

Requires the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) to serve as principal adviser to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on regulatory oversight.

Provides that under the direction of the President, the OMB Director shall develop and implement Federal information policies, principles, standards, and guidelines and shall provide direction and oversee the review and approval of information collection requests and regulations and the reduction of the paperwork and regulatory burden.

Specifies that the general regulatory oversight policy functions of the OMB Director shall include: (1) developing and implementing uniform and consistent regulatory policies and overseeing the development of regulatory principles, standards, and guidelines, and promoting their use; (2) initiating and reviewing proposals for changes in legislation, regulations, and agency proceedings to improve regulatory practices and informing the President and the Congress thereon; (3) coordinating agency regulatory practices; (4) evaluating such practices to determine their adequacy and efficiency, their impact on national economic competitiveness, and their compliance with the policies, principles, standards, and guidelines promulgated by the Director; (5) overseeing planning for, and research with respect to, Federal regulatory practices; and (6) reviewing any Regulatory Impact Analysis, notice of proposed rulemaking, or final rule based on the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980.

Specifies that the regulatory clearance and control functions of the Director shall include: (1) designating major rules; (2) promulgating uniform standards for the identification of major rules and the development of Regulatory Impact Analyses; (3) requiring an agency to obtain and evaluate, in connection with a regulation, any additional relevant data from any appropriate source; (4) waiving the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 with respect to any major rule; (5) identifying duplicative, overlapping, and conflicting rules and rules that are inconsistent with the policies underlying statutes governing agencies other than the issuing agency or with the purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980; (6) requiring appropriate inter-agency consultation to minimize or eliminate such duplication, overlap, or conflict; (7) developing procedures for estimating the annual benefits and costs of agency regulations for purposes of compiling a regulatory budget and assessing the impact of such regulations on national economic competitiveness; (8) preparing for the President's recommendations for changes in agency statutes; (9) designating rules for review and establishing schedules for reviews and analyses under such Act; (10) establishing a regulatory planning process by which the President will develop and publish a regulatory program for each year; (11) considering the consistency of agency draft regulatory programs with the President's policies and priorities and the draft regulatory programs submitted by other agencies and identifying such regulatory or deregulatory actions as may be necessary to achieve such consistency; and (12) monitoring and advising the President with respect to agency compliance with the requirements of such Act.

Makes each agency responsible for carrying out its regulatory review activities in an efficient, effective, and economical manner and for complying with the regulatory oversight standards prescribed by the OMB Director.

Requires agencies, in promulgating new regulations, reviewing existing regulations, and developing legislative proposals concerning regulation: (1) not to undertake regulatory action unless the potential benefits outweigh the potential costs to society; (2) to choose regulatory objectives that maximize net benefits to society and avoid adverse effects on economic competitiveness; (3) to choose the regulatory alternative involving the least net cost to society; and (4) to set regulatory priorities to maximize the aggregate net benefits to society.

Requires each agency, in connection with every major rule, to prepare and consider a Regulatory Impact Analysis.

Requires each agency to initially determine whether a rule it intends to propose or to issue is a major rule. Authorizes the Director to prescribe criteria for making such determinations, to order a rule to be treated as a major rule, and to require any set of related rules to be considered together as a major rule.

Prescribes procedures applicable to agency preparation and publication of Regulatory Impact Analyses of major rules. Requires such Analyses to be transmitted to the OMB Director.

Specifies the information each preliminary and final Regulatory Impact Analysis must contain in order to permit each draft major rule to be analyzed.

Requires agencies to make their preliminary and final Regulatory Impact Analyses available to the public.

Requires agencies to initiate reviews of currently effective rules in accordance with the purposes of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 and to perform Regulatory Impact Analyses of currently effective major rules.

Provides that before approving any final major rule, each agency shall make a determination that: (1) the regulation is clearly within the authority delegated by law and consistent with congressional intent; and (2) the factual conclusions upon which the rule is based have a substantial support in the agency record, viewed as a whole, with full attention to public comments in general and the comments of persons directly affected by the rule in particular.

Requires each agency to publish, in October and April of each year, an agenda of proposed regulations that the agency has issued or expects to issue and currently effective rules that are under agency review pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980.

Specifies the cases in which the above prescribed procedures shall not be applicable.

Requires the Director to determine whether regulations or the practice and procedure requirements of an agency relative to the administration of the Export Administration Act are exempted from review under this Act.

Prohibits an agency from implementing or sponsoring the implementation of a regulation unless: (1) the agency has taken actions to adhere to specified requirements and comply with the above prescribed procedures applicable to agency preparation of Regulatory Impact Analyses and the regulatory clearance and control functions of the OMB Director; (2) the agency has submitted to the Director the draft regulation, copies of pertinent statutes and other related materials as the Director may specify, and an explanation of actions taken to carry out the regulatory analysis, clearance, and control procedures, and has prepared a notice stating that the agency has made such submission; and (3) the OMB Director has approved the draft regulation, or the period provided for review of regulations by the Director has elapsed.

Makes certain provisions with respect to public information collection activities concerning information collection requests applicable to draft regulations.

Revises public protection provisions to prohibit a person from being subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a regulation adopted or revised by an agency after December 31, 1993, that is not in compliance with specified requirements of such Act or that fails to disclose exemption from such Act.

Provides that in reviewing draft regulations, the OMB Director shall provide interested agencies and persons early and meaningful opportunity to comment.

Authorizes appropriations through FY 1997 for OIRA to carry out the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980.

Strikes language under appropriations provisions stating that the review of a rule or regulation is specifically authorized or required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 only to the extent that such review is for the sole purpose of reviewing an information collection request contained in, or derived from, such rule or regulation.