Regulatory Pacesetters

We have completed work on our report titled Management of the Administrative State.

In preparing this report our objective was to initiate a debate on the mechanisms available for managing the administrative state as well as the options concerning who should control the aforementioned mechanisms.

We appreciate the suggestions we have received recommending that CRE submit its report to a recognized academic journal or think tank for publication. Instead and notwithstanding the many merits of these suggestions we decided to make the report available to any and all institutions who may wish to publish it themselves.

Editor’s Note:

This post is made in response to requests for information that could be used to compare the Reagan regulatory program with that of Trump aka Reagan v. Trump. Academics survive because they publish; practitioners survive because they do not publish. Accordingly in addition to the post that follows we call to the attention of potential authors the following posts: Regulatory Reform Under Reagan and Trump, The State of the Administrative State, Trump Contributions to the Administrative State, One-Half Century of Centralized Regulatory Review and Has the Reign of the Economist Ended?

An excerpt from an article published on the website of the American Political Science Association:

Fortunately the Journal for Benefit-Cost Analysis held a forum where a unique group of leading authorities expressed their precedent setting comments on a recommended plan for moving forward on improving the management of the administrative state. The resultant comments establish the foundation for a deliberative discussion on the future managerial mandates for OIRA (Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs- Executive Office of the President of the United States) and the resultant management of the administrative state.

The precursor to Executive Order 12866 is Executive Order 12291.

Read this post to understand the complex history behind these two documents.

“ Fortunately the Journal for Benefit-Cost Analysis held a forum where a unique group of leading authorities expressed their precedent setting comments on a recommended plan for moving forward on improving the management of the administrative state. The resultant comments establish the foundation for a deliberative discussion on the future managerial mandates for OIRA and the resultant management of the administrative state.”

The above quotation is from an article published on the website of the American Political Science Association titled Management of the Administrative State which was authored by the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness. OIRA, the Office of Information and Regulatory Policy in OMB, has become the fulcrum of the modern Presidency.

Recent Articles Written by Political Scientists

OIRA 2.0: How Regulatory Review Can Help Respond to Existential Threats

We need a new framework to solve problems in the wake of COVID-19

Bending the Rules: Procedural Politicking in the Bureaucracy

Central Clearance as Presidential Management

The State of the Administrative State: The Regulatory Impact of the Trump Administration

 Recent Articles Written by Attorneys

Has the Reign of the Economist Ended?

Upvoting the Administrative State

Regulating by Robot: Administrative Decision Making in the Machine-Learning Era

Government by Algorithm: Artificial Intelligence in Federal Administrative Agencies

The critical shortage of ventilators which occurred in Italy is an imminent occurrence in the US.  As our hospitals become flooded with patients which ones are going to receive life saving devices such as ventilators?

CRE notes that any number of states (and possibly hospitals within a state) are working on guidelines dealing with the allocation of scarce medical equipment among particular patient classes; these triage guidelines could determine which patients live and those that die. Many might consider the said guidelines as “binding” and at times are based upon mathematical models. These guidelines are of paramount interest to the public.  CRE will continue its work to promote the input from a comprehensive set of stakeholders during the development of triage guidelines with full recognition of the observation that serious questions have been raised about the efficacy of ventilators.

Editor’s Note: The following is an abbreviated version of a letter to Mr. Gideon Levy, a correspondent with Haaretz, from a friend of his, Rosita Poloni, who is presently a residence of Italy.  Complete Article here.

 An article in the Washington Post reaches conclusions similar to those reached by Ms. Polini.  Italy’s coronavirus deaths are staggering. They might be a preview and not an anomaly: “Doctors and health officials say other countries should regard Italy not as an outlier or an example of missteps, but as a warning of the hardships that could soon be at hand. By Chico Harlan, Stefano Pitrelli and Claudia Cavaliere.”

“Cambridge published its first book in 1584 making it the oldest publishing house in the world.”

CRE was most fortunate to have its most recent, and last, peer reviewed study published by Cambridge University Press.