Sunstein defines a "smart approach" to regulatory reform (US)

This blog has reported on the criticism recently facing the Obama administration’s red tape reduction programme. Now (1 July) the head of OIRA and main driver of the reform, Cass Sunstein, has responded in a major article in the Washington Post which draws a complete picture of the policy. He for instance claims that the Obama years have not seen more, but less regulation than during the Bush era and that the simplification effort is unprecedented: “the Obama administration has initiated an unprecedented process for streamlining and eliminating regulations, with the goal of reducing unjustified costs. We are taking immediate steps to eliminate millions of hours in annual paperwork burdens for large and small businesses and more than $1billion in annual regulatory costs. Hundreds of reform proposals from 30 agencies, now out for public scrutiny, promise to deliver billions of dollars in additional savings…. Over the Obama administration’s first two years, the net benefits of regulations exceeded $35billion — more than 10 times the net benefits from the first two years of the Bush administration.”