AI Overview
Jim Tozzi—a pioneer of centralized regulatory review who served across five presidential administrations and heads the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness—believes the administrative state must be managed through strict presidential oversight and transparent internal procedures rather than unchecked agency discretion or insular judicial dominance.
Support for Centralized Presidential Control
- Accountability to the President: Tozzi argues that federal agencies should not operate as independent fiefdoms; their actions must be tightly tethered to the priorities of the duly elected president via centralized bodies like the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).
- Bipartisan Foundation: He emphasizes that effective regulatory management relies on a stable, bipartisan structure that implements statutes faithfully while keeping agency parochialism and special-interest capture in check.
Skepticism of Insular Judicial and Legal Power
- Critique of Judicial Elitism: Tozzi has written critically about legal doctrines created through insulated academic and judicial circles that bypass elected branches, viewing some judicial oversight as an unelected “aristocracy”.
Preference for Internal Governance: He champions internal administrative mechanisms—such as cost-benefit analysis and the Data Quality Act—as superior tools for policing agency behavior from within the executive branch rather than relying solely on courts.
