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Cass Sunstein on making government simpler, not smaller
Sen. Barbara Boxer's (D-Calif.) folder is covered with notes during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol March 21, 2013 in Washington, D.C.
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Whenever a federal agency sets new standards, say about the environment, or the financial industry, there's an office inside the White House that has to put the final seal of approval on those regulations. It's called OIRA (pronounced, "Oh, Ira") -- the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
Up until last year, Cass Sunstein ran that office for President Obama. And he's got a new book about making government, and its rules, work more elegantly. It's called "Simpler".
"Think of a large company which is not going to get smaller. It shouldn't. It should grow. But it can get simpler. It can make the experience for its own employees and for its customers easier," Sunstein says. "My suggestion is that governments can serve their citizens a lot better if they get simpler."
The current regulatory system in the United States is undoubtedly complicated, with state and local agencies issuing their own rules. That's in addition to the sometimes conflicting policies coming out of multiple federal agencies. At Sunstein's former post, OIRA, the focus is on negotiating and solving those potential conflicts.
That can lead to criticism that the office is a convenient place for Presidents to allow inconvenient rules to wither away. Sunstein doesn't agree with that characterization.
"Recent Presidents, starting actually with Reagan, have found it useful to have an office where there's an administration-wide examination of whether regulations make sense," he says.
However, he acknowledges that process can prevent a regulation from being enforced.
"It might happen sometimes that the internal scrutiny means the rule doesn't come out. And that means there isn't sufficently wide administration support for [the rule]".
Lest these rules sound like dull stuff, Sunstein reminds us how we're touched in everyday life by regulation.
"If you think about whether the economy is booming or not, or whether the air is clean or not, or whether food is safe or not, those are all core issues that regulation is engaged with," Sunstein says. "I hope there's nothing dry about that."
Until yesterday I wasn't familiar with Mr. Sunstein or his book. However, the ideas seemed interesting so I was looking forward to the conversation. Instead, Kai Ryssdal seemed unprepared and his rather rude tone left the impression that he had already dismissed both the author and his ideas. I would like to have heard what the man had to say in order to form my own conclusions. This was a disappointing segment from what I consider one of NPR's better shows and hosts.
Agree with the other commenter. Usually enjoy this show but this segment sounded like a disjointed and biased attack on the author and the regulatory system, and largely divorced from the substance of the book itself... Kai, with all due respect, it sounded like you hadn't read more than the book title and were simply unprepared for the interview. Which is too bad because, whether you like federal regulations or not (and their rather significant effect on markets and the broader economy), Cass Sunstein is a pretty fascinating person to listen to.
