Public Participation

The ranking accorded to a school of law by US News is  one barometer of its capabilities. Historically, however, US News has not given explicit weight to the benefits accruing to law students who participate in  multidisciplinary programs taught  in other colleges at  the same university.

CRE has under consideration a recommendation to US News that for those law schools which offer  a joint program with a school of public affairs or related discipline  that the said  rankings for both  the  law school and the school of public affairs should be enhanced accordingly.

See draft  US News Transmittal

American regulations hobble American companies. Foreign regulations do the same thing. This is nothing new. Over thirty years ago, a senior OIRA official informed the President’s Regulatory Relief Task Force that

Many foreign governments are issuing a significant number of wide ranging regulations which result in unjustified expenditures on U.S. firms. Consequently the best of U.S, regulatory relief programs will not, by themselves, solve the problems created by foreign regulations. The regulations of foreign government often interfere with U.S, exports and the operation of multinational corporations by setting unreasonable product standards, limiting U.S. investment, requiring the use of local labor and materials and requiring that U.S. firms “offset” their sales by agreeing to export products produced by the foreign government.

OIRA and its predecessor organizations have a rich history spanning a time period of nearly five decades.

Noted scholars of the administrative state have concluded that not only is OIRA the cockpit of the regulatory state but it is the most significant institutional feature of the regulatory state.

For the above reasons scholars of the administrative state are in a continued search for background information which describes the creation and operation of OIRA. A repository of significant information can be developed through oral histories presented by individuals who were present at the creation of centralized review and eventually OIRA. Here is a list of some of the  histories compiled at this time; see  Oral Histories OIRA

After thirty seven years of analysis and debate the United States government is going to implement a regulatory budget as a result of a Presidential Executive Order [Sec. 3(d)] which will control the size of the regulatory state. OIRA, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the White House Office of Management and Budget, has been assigned the aforementioned task.

An issue of immediate concern is that OIRA is in need of additional staff but the probability of receiving additional staff is questionable as a result of personnel ceilings on the Executive Office of the President as well a recent personnel freeze.