The Heritage Foundation released this article today that gives a little history of OIRA and speculates as to how Sunstein will use them.

Good Czar, Bad Czar: Cass Sunstein and the Future of OIRA » The Foundry

It’s perhaps the most important job no one has ever heard of. Yesterday, Harvard professor Cass Sunstein was confirmed by the Senate as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, otherwise known as the nation’s “regulatory czar.” Nowadays, the mere mention of a czar tends to get eyes rolling in Washington, as President Obama has crowned more czars than did the Romanovs. Yet this czar-dom isn’t a newly minted Obama Administration post. The job goes back to President Reagan. The mission: to be the regulator’s regulator, with the power to block proposed new regulations unless their costs are justified by their benefits.

via Good Czar, Bad Czar: Cass Sunstein and the Future of OIRA » The Foundry.

This is a clip from the Harvard Law School website. It looks like Cass is big on global warming regulations.

Sunstein confirmed as Washington regulator

The U.S. Senate voted yesterday to confirm Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein ’78 as administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget.

The administrator for the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget oversees the effectiveness of federal regulations. The job is viewed as one of the most crucial in the new administration, with responsibility for tackling many new regulatory issues, including an overhaul of the financial services industry, an attempt to pass universal healthcare, and new efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions.

In April, President Barack Obama ’91 nominated Sunstein to head the office: “As one of America’s leading constitutional scholars, Cass Sunstein has distinguished himself in a range of fields, including administrative law and policy, environmental law, and behavioral economics. He is uniquely qualified to lead my Administration’s regulatory reform agenda at this crucial stage in our history. Cass is not only a valued advisor, he is a dear friend and I am proud to have him on my team,” said Obama.

A prolific scholar, Sunstein is known for his expertise in the field of law and behavioral economics, which seeks to shape law and policy around the way research shows people actually behave.

via Sunstein confirmed as Washington regulator.