The Business Journals On The Dudley Nomination

This has been in The Washington Business Journal and some of the other papers in the Business Journal chain...

http://kansascity.bizjournals.com/extraedge/washingtonbureau/archive/2006/08/14/bureau2.html?market=kansascity

Business likes new regulatory czar; others don't

Business groups praised President Bush's nomination of Susan Dudley to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which reviews new federal rules before they are issued.
Prior to her nomination, Dudley directed the Regulatory Studies Program of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. Much of her work has focused on the cost of federal regulations.

Andrew Langer, who heads regulatory policy for the National Federation of Independent Business, says Dudley "understands the tools that will be required to bring the regulatory state under control."

Langer says that's a key issue for small businesses, which pay much more per employee to comply with regulations than large businesses do.

Dudley will build on the work done by John Graham, her predecessor at OIRA, to improve new regulations by measuring their costs, comparing these costs with the benefits of the rules, and determining whether other priorities are more important, Langer says.

"We can have better and smarter regulations," he says.

Consumer advocacy groups, however, contend that OIRA under Graham weakened regulatory agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

"If Dudley is confirmed by the Senate, she will further strip them of their ability to stand up to government secrecy, politicization and corporate interests," says Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook. "Throughout her career, Dudley has consistently fought against government safeguards and advocated a radical, hands-off approach to regulating corporations."

Robert Shull, director of policy at OMB Watch, calls Dudley "an anti-regulatory extremist."

"Corporate special interests are about to have the best friend they could have wished for installed in the White House office that oversees regulatory policy," Shull says.

For more information on Dudley, see www.mercatus.org