Cass Sunstein

White House Profile

Cass Sunstein

Former Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

Before becoming Administrator, Cass R. Sunstein was the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Mr. Sunstein graduated in 1975 from Harvard College and in 1978 from Harvard Law School magna cum laude. After graduation, he clerked for Justice Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and Justice Thurgood Marshall of the U.S. Supreme Court, and then he worked as an attorney-advisor in the Office of the Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice. He was a faculty member at the University of Chicago Law School from 1981 to 2008.

Mr. Sunstein has testified before congressional committees on many subjects, and he has been involved as an advisor in constitution-making and law reform activities in a number of nations. A specialist in administrative law, regulatory policy, and behavioral economics, Mr. Sunstein is author of many articles and a number of books, including After the Rights Revolution (1990), Risk and Reason (2002), Laws of Fear: Beyond the Precautionary Principle (2005), Worst-Case Scenarios (2007), and Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness (with Richard H. Thaler, 2008).

Cass Sunstein's Posts

Health Care

Reducing Regulatory Burdens in Health Care, Saving More Than $1 Billion

October 18, 2011 at 11:55 AM EDT

Cass Sunstein on the latest accomplishments of the President's regulatory lookback initiative. New HHS regulatory reforms are expected to save more than $1 billion annually in healthcare overhead and paperwork costs.

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Ethics

The Facts About Regulations

August 26, 2011 at 2:42 PM EDT

The Obama Administration has finalized or formally proposed reforms to save more than $4 billion of regulatory costs over the next five years

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Ethics

Final Regulatory Reform Plans Will Save Money, Reduce Waste

August 23, 2011 at 9:00 AM EDT

Rules are expected to save more than $4 billion over the next five years.

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Ethics

The President’s Executive Order on Improving and Streamlining Regulation by Independent Regulatory Agencies

July 11, 2011 at 6:28 PM EDT

President Obama issues a new Executive Order asking the independent regulatory agencies, including the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, to take new steps to ensure smart, cost-effective regulations, designed to promote economic growth and job creation.

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Ethics

Putting it Plainly

April 19, 2011 at 11:00 AM EDT

Cass Sunstein, Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, writes about new guidance to Federal agencies to help make government information clear to the public and streamline government response resources.

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Economy

Another Example of How Regulatory Reform Eliminates Unnecessary Costs for Americans

April 12, 2011 at 4:12 PM EDT

The Environmental Protection Agency takes steps toward eliminating unnecessary costs on the American public and American businesses, announcing that it has updated a rule will save the milk and dairy industries as much as $140 million per year.

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Economy

Smarter Regulation

February 7, 2011 at 12:29 PM EDT

Cass Sunstein, Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, writes about the President's Executive Order designed to economic growth and job creation while also protecting the health and safety of the American people.

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