May 12, 2009 (Washington, DC)-As the Senate prepares to hear testimony on the fitness of the President's pick for the post of "Regulatory Czar", The Institute for Liberty, an organization focused on the impact of federal regulatory policies on small business and entrepreneurship, is voicing its support for Dr. Cass Sunstein as the new Director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

"There has never been a more critical time for someone to stand as the gatekeeper for the nation's regulatory state," said Andrew Langer, IFL's President. "Cass Sunstein literally wrote the book on some of the most important tools that we as a nation can use to determine which regulatory approaches will work, and which will not."

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is the office within the federal Office of Management and Budget that serves to review proposed regulations for their fitness for implementation. It weighs a variety of criteria, assesses costs and benefits, and determines and compares various risks associated with regulatory proposals, in order to craft a regulatory state that addresses public policy priorities without destroying the economic prosperity which allows us to protect public health and safety.

"We have gotten out of the habit of prioritizing public policy goals," Langer continued. "We, as a people, cannot engage in every public policy whim that tickles our fancy. We cannot afford it in this day and age, and the public is not served by slap-dash regulatory policy. Comparative risk assessment, the subject of Dr. Sunstein's book, Risk and Reason, is just one of the critical tools to that end. President Obama could not have picked a better OIRA Director at this point in time. Given the economic crisis this nation finds itself in, someone who understands the role that regulatory costs play in the economy is critical."

Recent estimates put the cost of federal regulations at nearly $1.2 trillion annually. The Institute for Liberty is a non-profit advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. Its primary purpose is to inject the small business perspective into the federal regulatory debate, and reduce those regulatory costs.

Contact: Andrew Langer
(202) 261-6592