Final answer:
New regulations must be approved by Congress and signed by the President. They must also undergo a comprehensive rulemaking process that includes public engagement and addressing feasibility. The process includes negotiations and may result in exemptions due to political compromises.
Step-by-step explanation:
Before any new regulation can take place, it must first undergo a series of steps to ensure it is properly created, approved, and implemented. In the context of the United States, a bill proposing new regulations must be approved by both houses of Congress. After this approval, as stipulated by the U.S. Constitution, "Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States" for a signature or veto.
Beyond these legislative steps, agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) must also engage in a detailed rulemaking process which includes public engagement, providing notice, receiving comments, and outlining feasible measures for compliance. This ensures that the concerns of different stakeholders are heard and that the regulations are viable. Moreover, when there are grey areas in legislation, bureaucracies may engage in the federal negotiated rulemaking process to iron out the details of how new policies will be enforced at the agency level. This allows for clarity and specificity that might not be present in the broad strokes of the legislation itself.
In the real-world political environment, the writing of such regulations often involves negotiation, with existing firms sometimes lobbying against the application of stricter environmental standards to themselves, arguing these should only apply to new firms. This politicized process can result in regulations that come with loopholes and exceptions, which are not always stringent or comprehensive due to these compromises.