We often think of the modern system of White House regulatory oversight, centered around the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, as a well-established framework. And of course, the nearly 40-year-old OIRA has become a significant and respected institution. But against the backdrop of our nearly 250-year-old republic, OIRA is still a very young institution.

The Trump Administration, through Executive Order 13771 and other innovations, has reminded us that OIRA’s structure and processes are not written in stone. So how should we think of OIRA’s current state—and its future?

To discuss this question and the broader issues of White House regulatory oversight and cost-benefit analysis, George Mason University’s C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State is proud to host a conference, on “The Future of White House Regulatory Oversight and Cost-Benefit Analysis,” on September 13 at George Mason University’s campus in Arlington, Virginia.

The conference will be keynoted by the White House’s Acting OIRA Administrator, Paul Ray. And its panel discussions feature three former OIRA Administrators—Christopher DeMuth, Sally Katzen, and Susan Dudley—and a wide range of other expert scholars, practitioners, and policymakers.

We hope you’ll join us for the conference; full details, and the link to RSVP, are available on the conference’s home page.

The conference will discuss these new Gray Center Working Papers:

• “Transparency in Agency Cost-Benefit Analysis,” by Caroline Cecot & Robert Hahn
• “OIRA Past and Future,” by Susan Dudley
• “David versus Godzilla: Bigger Stones,” by Jerry Ellig & Richard Williams
• “Codifying the Cost-Benefit State,” by Brian F. Mannix & Bridget C.E. Dooling
• “The Ascendancy of the Cost-Benefit State?,” by Paul R. Noe & John D. Graham
• “OIRA’s Dual Role and the Future of Cost-Benefit Analysis,” by Stuart Shapiro
• “OIRA: Past, Present and Future,” by Jim Tozzi
• “Why Two Congressional OIRAs Are Better Than One,” by William Yeatman

The event’s videos will eventually be available online. But we hope you’ll join us in person for the discussion. And we hope you’ll bring ideas and questions of your own.

“OIRA is the cockpit of the regulatory state,” according to President Obama’s OIRA Administrator, Cass Sunstein. Let’s look inside the cockpit, to see what’s working well, and what’s due for an upgrade.