Regulatory Oversight at 25:

A Review of the Record

Monday, November 7th, 2005 

For the last 25 years, each president has attempted to oversee government regulation through the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. OIRA’s impact on regulatory decisions has been controversial. Some argue that OIRA has improved the quality of proposed regulations and forced agencies to focus on regulations that deliver the most bang for the buck. Others believe that it is simply a mechanism for delaying or stopping regulation. This conference brings together leading practitioners and researchers to assess the impact of federal regulatory oversight and its potential for improving economic well being.



AGENDA

Monday, November 7th, 2005
8:30 a.m.–1:45 p.m.
Wohlstetter Conference Center
Twelfth Floor, AEI
1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

8:30 a.m. Registration
8:45 a.m. Welcome
ROBERT HAHN, AEI-Brookings Joint Center
9:00 a.m.
Keynote:

Global Prospects for Regulatory Improvement

C. BOYDEN GRAY, Ambassador Designate to the European Union
Panel I
THE DECISION MAKER'S PERSPECTIVE
WENDY GRAMM, Mercatus Distinguished Scholar
JAMES MILLER, CapAnalysis Group, LLC
SALLY KATZEN, University of Michigan
11:00 a.m
Panel II
IMPROVING THE REGULATORY PROCESS: A RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE
Presenters:
TOM McGARITY, University of Texas at Austin
JOHN MORALL, OIRA
KERRY SMITH, North Carolina State University
Moderator:
SCOTT WALLSTEN, AEI-Brookings Joint Center
12:30 p.m.
LUNCHEON
REGULATORY POLICY BASED ON BENEFITS AND COSTS
ADDRESS: PROGRESS AND CHALENGES
JOHN GRAHAM, Administrator, OIRA
1:45 Adjournment

To register online, please click here.  For more information, please contact Sasha Gentling at 202.862.5903 or [email protected].


PRESS

The Washington Post says:

It is one of Washington's most obscure, yet powerful, offices.

Staffed by only 50 men and women, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs is in its 25th year of overseeing the federal rulemaking bureaucracy. Next Monday, the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies will gather four OIRA administrators and others in the regulatory nexus to examine how various presidents have used that oversight function to achieve political and policy goals...

The office is said to have the creme de la creme of staff members, who always have called the administrator by first name. Its alumni have fanned out over the years into other influential top posts. James Miller III , the first administrator, went on to head the Federal Trade Commission and OMB. Christopher DeMuth , who succeeded Miller, runs AEI. And Wendy Gramm , a professional economist, became head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Full article here