The White House listed the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard as an active regulatory action on its new six-month, signifying that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is on track to release the final rule on time next July. The administration introduced two other active rules to the regulatory agenda: the Food and Drug Administration’s updates to the Nutrition Facts label and a proposed rule to remove requirements for written assurances on preventive controls from some customers required by the Food Safety Modernization Act.

The Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, released biennially, provides a list of regulatory actions it expects to undertake in the six months following the report. It includes status updates for many regulations affecting dairy companies, such as USDA’s final rule to reinstate low-fat flavored milk options in school meals.

The administration also announced that FDA is considering changes to its General Principles and Food Standards Modernization as a long-term action. This means FDA may once again take up work on a joint proposed rule from 2005 by the FDA and USDA’s Food Safety Inspection Service, which would streamline the lengthy citizen petition process for modernizing or revoking food standards.

IDFA members may log in to read a status list of all regulations relevant to dairy that are included in the Unified Agenda.

The actions in the Unified Agenda reflect the policies in President Donald Trump’s executive orders for regulatory reform. In February, President Trump issued an executive order requiring federal agencies and executive departments to identify at least two existing regulatory actions for repeal whenever a new regulation is proposed or finalized. This order also required costs for any new regulations to be offset with reductions from the rules that were eliminated. In April, he issued a second executive order to establish guidance for agencies to use when implementing the first order.

Although not required, agencies are now planning to walk back three regulatory actions for every new regulatory action it proposes in fiscal year 2018.

IDFA will continue to monitor progress on all regulatory actions that could affect the dairy industry.

For more information, contact Emily Lyons, IDFA director of regulatory affairs and counsel, at elyons@idfa.org.