Susan E. Dudley

Susan E. Dudley was named April 4, 2007, in a recess appointment by President George W. Bush to be Director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget. Dudley "will have an opportunity to change or block all regulations proposed by government agencies." 

Dudley has been serving as a special advisor to the OIRA, which "reviews all proposed government rules." She previously served as director of the Regulatory Studies Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

Nominations to White House Regulatory Office
On July 31, 2006, President Bush nominated Dudley to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Part of the OMB, the OIRA "reviews major agency regulations with an eye toward reducing compliance costs, and according to critics, easing burdens on companies," according to the Wall Street Journal. According to the Journal:
 * Under Ms. Dudley, Mercatus has been a very active player at OIRA proceedings. Ultimately, 14 of the 23 rules the White House chose for its 2001 "hit list" were Mercatus entries. Ms. Dudley, who had an earlier turn as a staff economist at OIRA and the Environmental Protection Agency, calls herself a "free-market environmentalist," who wants to protect the environment through "market-based incentives."

On April 1, 2007, the Los Angeles Times reported that President Bush "has renominated three people for top jobs affecting the environment who were previously blocked in Congress because of their pro-industry views." Dudley, one of the three, was renominated to head OIRA. "According to industry lobbyists and Republican aides in Congress, Bush intends to skirt the Senate approval process if necessary by making recess appointments to put the three nominees in the posts," reported the Times. 

Dudley Argues For Less Information Release on Toxics
In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks Dudley complained that the Environmental Protection Agency had overstated the benefits of the Toxic Release Inventory. She went on to claim that there were national security risks to the disclosure of the information. "Perhaps more importantly, in light of recent events, EPA has not addressed the risks that making chemical risk information broadly available to potential terrorists can pose," she wrote. 

SourceWatch Resources

 * George Mason University
 * Mercatus Center
 * White House Office of Management and Budget

Articles By Dudley

 * "Susan E. Dudley: Articles, Commentary, and Publications", Mercatus Center.

General Articles

 * "Susan E. Dudley", accessed July 2006.
 * Bill Berkowitz, "Dudley Do-Wrong of George Mason University: White House appears set to name Susan Dudley of GMU's anti-regulatory Mercatus Center to a key post at the OMB", Media Transpraency, July 14, 2006.
 * Al Kamen, "I Am OMB and I Write the Rules", Washington Post, July 12, 2006.
 * The White House, Personnel Announcement, July 31, 2006.
 * Bob Davis, "White House Appoints Conservative Scholar To Regulatory Post," Wall Street Journal (sub req'd), August 1, 2006.
 * Judy Pasternak, "Bush again pushes 3 nominees seen as pro-industry: The president could skirt the Senate by using recess appointments," Los Angeles Times, April 1, 2007.
 * OMB Watch and Public Citizen, "The Cost Is Too High: How Susan Dudley Threatens Public Protections", September 2006.
 * Judy Pasternak, "Bush again pushes 3 nominees seen as pro-industry. The president could skirt the Senate by using recess appointments," Los Angeles Times, April 1, 2007.
 * Joel Havemann, "With Senate on break, Bush appoints officials. The three, including a contentious regulatory director, most likely would not have been approved by lawmakers," Los Angeles Times, April 5, 2007