Cass Sunstein to OIR
More appointments:
The president-elect is expected to name [Cass] Sunstein—his friend and informal adviser—to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a transition official said late Wednesday.
A low-profile position in the current administration, the job is likely to be a higher-wattage one after Obama takes office this month.
Sunstein seems like an unusually high-wattage person for this somewhat obscure job, further reenforcing the extent to which Obama is assembling a real team of all-stars where you have a bunch of people in secondary positions who would have enough stature to take on higher-profile jobs. OIR itself is a sub-part of the Office of Management and Budget and even though nobody’s ever heart of it, it has rather sweeping influence across the whole ambit of regulatory activities. Since there’s talk of doing a big overhaul of financial regulations that will be an obvious focus, but there’s lots and lots of regulating happening all over the place.
33 Responses to “Cass Sunstein to OIR”
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January 8th, 2009 at 9:56 am
“who would have enough stature to take on higher-profile jobs.”
eh. sunstein has academic stature. not a lot of govt. or bureaucratic stature, or even experience, though. if he had been appointed to some higher-profile jobs, the lack of experience would have been a problem.
still–he is smart, and he has thought about regulation. i disagree with his position on the e.u. precautionary principle, but at least he has actually heard of it. compared to the resolute know-nothings of the bush years, he’s light years ahead.
January 8th, 2009 at 9:58 am
I’ve heart of it.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:04 am
I always thought Cass was a good pick for Judge, maybe Supreme Court.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:17 am
OIRA is where the assessment of agency cost benefit analyses for significant rulemakings takes place. (kid bitzer, the Bush OIRA directors (first John Graham, then from the Harvard Risk Analysis organization, and later Susan Dudley from George Mason) are both quite familiar with the precautionary principle and such stuff. Graham’s position is probably quite similar to Sunstein’s, not sure about Dudley. With your statement you are revealing considerable ignorance.) The office oversees such things as data quality and data reporting requirements and standards for rulemakings, those cost benefit analyses, and other methodologies and tools used in developing rationales and analysis for federal rules and interventions in the private economy. There is a very capable professional civil service staff at OIRA. It will be interesting with Sunstein there.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Sunstein is head and shoulders above Sally Katzen, who headed OIRA under Clinton. He’s more cautious and pro-business than I would prefer, but still a superb choice for this position.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:20 am
oh, and OIRA is here http://www.whitehouse.gov/OMB/inforeg/
January 8th, 2009 at 10:40 am
Let me say: I don’t think this is so great. Sunstein is an economics absolutist of the Chicago school, and the way in which this position is influential is in evaluating the cost-benefit analysis stuff churned out by the agencies when they consider new and existing regulations. Needless to say, industry has become VERY good at padding the official analysis with bogus arguments about “the unseen benefits of pollution” and some such, as well as providing their own blatantly cooked up “analysis.” It’s all aimed at scoring a very high number for the cost of saving one human life under the regulation.
Sally Katzen was as good, perhaps better, than could be expected–the commenter above is dead wrong. Sunstein will be much more sympathetic to the industry side, and more importantly, he’s invested heavily in the whole idea that you can measure this kind of thing and dispassionately make the right choice about regulation. Whatever the philosophy, the experience is clear: industry has hijacked the process and the whole cost-benefit thing needs to be junked. So the old way was based on horse-trading among interests. My point is the new way (cost-benefit) is no different, nor can any exercise in policy-making be substantially different.
January 8th, 2009 at 10:45 am
“you are revealing considerable ignorance”
well, i’m revealing my knowledge rather imperfectly, at any rate.
sure, i remember john graham, harvard wizard, appointed with much fanfare and puff pieces about how he would rationalize the spending of every federal dollar. i read that stuff back then.
trouble is, the risk analysis wizardry never had any effect on bush administration policy. the bush administration policy was very simple: bend over for business.
and the people who crafted and implemented that policy were the resolute know-nothings to whom i was referring.
did graham do all of the case-by-case analysis that the puff-pieces promised, and find that, by some amazing coincidence, the most rational outcome in every case was to bend over for business? or was he simply over-ruled by rove and the business wing (i.e the republican party)? probably the latter. maybe graham will tell us himself.
in any case, i do remember graham. but when i wrote, i was thinking more of the story as it played out in epa, in osha, in nih, nasa, everywhere else throughout the bush regime: ideologues and know-nothings.
January 8th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Marshall-
I dealt with Sally Katzen professionally during the Clinton Administration, and I found her to be defensive, obscurantist, impatient, and dedicated towards reaching particular outcomes regardless of the facts.
Now, that’s not how I define “as good as could be expected.” What parts of her performance do you think were good?
And calling Sunstein an economics absolutist of the Chicago School? Got any data to go with that? I mean, even “Nudge”, which is probably his work that most closely leans towards the Chicago School (C.S. very loosely defined, because the Chicago School is the whole Friedman schtick, and Sunstein’s hardly a monetarist, for example) is more behavioral economics than anything else. Look at Sunstein’s other books, like “Free Markets and Social Justice”, or “The Second Bill of Rights: FDR’s Unfinished Revolution–And Why We Need It More Than Ever”, and see what you think.
The guy is something of a centrist, but it’s a genuine position that he’s worked out–in part in response to the extremism of the right.
So, what was so great about Sally Katzen?
January 8th, 2009 at 11:12 am
GREAT pick. Sunstein is awesome, and I’m really excited about the possibility of a broad implementation of behavioral economics to regulatory policy. Now I’ll be annoying and plug my own blog, where I have more thoughts on the matter here: http://dlpfc.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/behavioral-revolution-through-regulation/
January 8th, 2009 at 11:31 am
Doesn’t Sunstein have some pro-torture views? Or am I mis-remembering his arguments?
January 8th, 2009 at 11:49 am
I’m just saying that the list of regulations enacted during the Clinton administration is somewhat long and rather beneficial. The EPA did some good work on auto and power plant emissions, for instance. I assume that passed through OIR, though if I’m wrong I’m sure you’ll say so. I have only ever seen Sally Katzen once, but I thought she acquitted herself well in that context, which was a debate about exactly the issues I brought up in my prior comment. I would like to say, however, that “dedicated towards reaching particular outcomes regardless of the facts” is not a particularly bad attribute in a high official, at least in my book. (If it is literally without regard to facts, that would of course be bad.) My point is that an ideological agenda is not a bad thing as long as it’s the right one, so if Katzen was systematically unwilling to look at industry figures, that would be a sign of success to me.
About Sunstein, he’s obviously not tied up with Friedmanite monetarism and related macroeconomic subjects, but he is connected to the Chicago approach of relating economics to everything. What I meant by my criticism is that such an approach is in fact one ideology among many, not some pursuit of the truth, and I would rather public officials be forthright about their role, ie picking winners and losers.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Only a bloody champagne socialist could get excited about expanding government regulations.
Place is gone to the dogs.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I honestly can’t figure out what you are claiming about Sunstein with respect to economics.
I’m saying that Sunstein is one among many economists who confuse social science and policy-making. Social science doesn’t tell you much that’s relevant to the evaluation of alternative regulations put forward by the agencies. In fact, it doesn’t tell you all that much that’s relevant to choosing the right policy of any kind.
Interestingly, everyone here has been saying that Sunstein is some sort of behavior economics wizard. But no one is defending his appointment by saying that he will actually protect the environment more than alternative candidates. Does anyone believe that?
What Stephen Myles said is relevant, wrong-headed though it may be. I’m excited about expanding government regulations to protect the environment, and I submit that the right appointee to this position would be as well. It’s an ideological role.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
I don’t see how behavioral economics, such as it is, speaks much to most of the regulatory issues (and information management issues) that OIRA deals with. For example a lot of the transportation regulations that pass through OIRA on their way from some DOT agency to the Federal Register are pretty technical; the same is true for environmental protection issues in many cases. There will probably be a lot of Homeland Security rulemakings in the next few years, and I don’t see how behavioral economics matters there. While there may be a lot of new or changed financial sector regulations in the future, I’m not sure how quickly that future will arrive. The rulemaking process is by design a slow and cumbersome one. Existing financial regulations often assumed that incentives could be used to buttress prudent behavior by financial firms and their executives — that is a primitive sort of “behavioral economics” that Greenspan and other relied upon, and as Greenspan said the other day, “oops…”
January 8th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
I’m saying that Sunstein is one among many economists who confuse social science and policy-making.
Seriously? This is wrong in so many ways that I don’t know where to begin. Cass is not an economist — he’s a law professor. He went to law school; he clerked for the Supreme Court; he’s been a law professor ever since at Chicago and (now) Harvard. On the Chicago faculty, he was known as probably the preeminent liberal scholar (to be contrasted with Epstein and Posner), and certainly not a law-and-economics guy. His scholarship certainly has been influenced to some degree by the popular L&E movement that Chicago is known for, but he generally has avoided the common law focus (made popular by Posner and Epstein) or securities/corporate law focus (made popular by Fischel and Easterbrook) that the school is associated with in favor of a behavioral economics approach to regulation. In fact, he really is most known for his judicial minimalist theories (see One Case at a Time) that have largely been embraced by the liberals and moderates on the Supreme Court.
(He was also my Administrative Law professor a long time ago.)
January 8th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Listen, if Sunstein is such a brilliant pick why is the right so pleased with his nomination? No one has even tried to defend the choice by making the argument that Sunstein will protect the environment. As far as I’m concerned, that is the only consideration.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
No one has even tried to defend the choice by making the argument that Sunstein will protect the environment.
Fine. If I recall, he opposed the ultimate outcome in Chevron, if not the test itself.
And the right approves for the same reason that the left grudgingly approved of Powell as SoS or Gates as SoD (under Bush) — they were respected (if not agreed with) and were widely considered to be about as good as you could do under a Republican administration.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
marshall, the head of OIRA doesn’t protect the environment, EPA protects the environment.
January 8th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
the head of OIRA doesn’t protect the environment, EPA protects the environment.
Unless her proposed regulations are shot down by the head of OIRA.
January 8th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Right, which is why Sally Katzen can’t really take credit for Clinton’s environmental regulations–Carol Browner can.
January 8th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I don’t think any Chicago Economists would say that Sunstein is an economist of the Chicago School. Many in the University of Chicago Economics Department, Law School, and Business School, would be insulted if you lumped Sunstein or his coauthor Thaler in with their “Chicago” economic policies. Still today they look down on behavioral economics and the (usually) leftish scholars who practice it. Yes, Sunst believes there is merit in economics and Cost-Benefit Analysis. But he criticizes plenty of it and the rational actor model. That’s hardly full-stop Chicago.
January 11th, 2009 at 12:32 am
Go check out the Kirk James Murphy’s post at firedoglake for a solid read on why this Sunstein is a TERRIBLE choice by Obama:
http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/10/pebo-wants-aei-libertarian-opposed-to-product-bans-deciding-ombs-health-and-enviro-rules/#Respond
January 12th, 2009 at 10:31 am
Still, given Mr. Sunstein’s views on cost-benefit analysis, progressives concerned about regulatory policy should want to hear assurances that under Mr. Sunstein’s leadership OIRA will stop serving as a roadblock to much needed environmental, health, and safety protections.
Rena Steinzor, President of the Center for Progressive Reform, a think-tank of legal scholars, blogs about Mr. Sunstein’s appointment here:
http://www.progressivereform.org/CPRblog.cfm?idBlog=BCC5AF38-1E0B-E803-CA9222BEA379D45D.
The Center for Progressive Reform plans to produce a full analysis of Mr. Sunstein’s views shortly.
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