Showcase Panel III: The Executive Branch and the Regulatory State

In recent decades, the President has sought to control the regulatory state through the Office of Management and Budget and through the office within OMB known as OIRA. This panel will discuss whether that is a positive development, and whether presidential review powers should apply to independent as well as executive branch agencies, which could be accomplished by allowing removal of independent agency heads by the President. Would such implementation of the unitary executive lodge too much power in one man, as clearly the Framers feared? Do views on such matters depend on who is the President at any given moment? The panel will also discuss possible changes to notice and comment rulemaking, and what guidance agencies ought to give to their prosecutorial law enforcement personnel.

Prof. Aditya Bamzai, Associate Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Prof. Susan Dudley, Director, Regulatory Studies Center & Distinguished Professor of Practice, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration, George Washington University
Prof. Lisa Heinzerling, Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., Professor of Law, Georgetown University
Hon. Neomi Rao, Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, The Office of Management and Budget
Moderator: Hon. David Barron, United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit
Introduction: Mr. Dean A. Reuter, Vice President & Director of Practice Groups, The Federalist Society