Archive for August, 2012

Sunstein joins Bloomberg View, BGov board

From: Politico

By DYLAN BYERS

Cass Sunstein, President Obama’s former Information and Regulatory Affairs administrator, is joining Bloomberg View as a columnist and joining Bloomberg Government’s advisory board as one of seven board members.

Sunstein, who left his post at OIRA earlier this year, will write about law, economics, and government at Bloomberg View, the opinion site launched last year.

He joins former Obama White House energy adviser Carol Browner; former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu; publishing veteran Bob Merry; former Reagan White House Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein; former U.S. Rep. Jack Buechner; and former U.S. Rep. Vin Webber on the Bloomberg Goverment advisory board.

Excerpt from White House Press Briefing on August 23rd

Q    Jay, thanks.  The New York Times is reporting today that this administration has close ties to Exelon, which may have helped foster greater access to the upper reaches of this administration, may have been proven helpful in terms of securing some grants and loans.  Do you have a reaction to this report?  Is it a fair report?

The President’s Super-Regulators: What’s Next for OIRA?

From: Advisory Commitee on Transparency

Aug. 20, 2012

2 p.m.- 3:30 p.m.  2203 Rayburn House Office Building

The president’s power over regulations is vested in a little-known unit within OMB called the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. These handful of staffers review any regulation that imposes more than $100 million in annual compliance costs for affected industries, and their influence extends even more broadly. With the imminent departure of OIRA’s administrator, Cass Sunstein, the time is ripe to evaluate the Obama administration’s approach to rulemaking, its transparency, and how OIRA should fit into the rulemaking process.

A Regulatory Reformer Leaves His Mark

From:  OMBlog  Posted by Jeffrey Zients

With regret and deep gratitude, I am announcing that Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator Cass Sunstein will be leaving OMB this month.  Having served in the Administration since the very start, and with the recent birth of a baby daughter and the coming of the new school year, Cass will be rejoining Harvard Law School as the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law and Director of the new Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy.

Sunstein To Return to HLS from D.C.

From: Harvard Crimson

Cass R. Sunstein ’75 will return to Harvard Law School in August after a three-year stint as President Barack Obama’s regulatory chief, White House and Law School officials announced Friday.

Sunstein, who has directed the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) since 2009, will return to teach at the Law School and to head the new Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy. A White House announcement Friday said that with a newborn child and the fall semester approaching, Sunstein had made the decision to return to teaching and step down as regulatory czar just months shy of November’s presidential election.

FedStats.gov Remains Rich Source Of Government Data For Citizens

From: AOL Government

By Brand Niemann

Data.gov has been around for about three years now and is touted as the prime example of the Open Government Data Initiative based on its growth in number of data sets and communities using them. However, there have been two activities that have been around much longer, with more high-quality data sets, and a larger community, namely FedStats.gov and FedStats.net, which deserve continued attention in the government data community.