The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, a former U.S. solicitor general, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, and a former chief appellate judge are among the new members of the reborn Administrative Conference of the United States.
As reported here in May, the little-known Administrative Conference has gotten a second life 15 years after its funding was eliminated in 1995. Once headed by Antonin Scalia before he became a justice, the bipartisan advisory group came up with ideas for improving how the federal bureaucracy functions.
The conference already has a new chairman: Paul Verkuil, law professor and former dean of Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law.
Now, President Barack Obama is adding members, including FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski; Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Theodore Olson, solicitor general under President George W. Bush; Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division; and retired Judge Patricia Wald, former chief of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
The conference’s new vice chair is Preeta Bansal, general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget. She’s a former solicitor general of the state of New York and former head of the appellate litigation practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom.
In a statement late Thursday, Obama called the conference’s mission “vital.” Its members, he added, “are committed individuals from distinguished backgrounds who are devoted to enhancing the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of our government.”
Others who will be new members are Thomasina Rogers, chair of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission; Michael Fitzpatrick, associate administrator of the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs; Ronald Cass, former dean of Boston University School of Law; Mariano-Florentino “Tino” Cuéllar, a professor at Stanford Law School who recently served as a special assistant to the president for regulatory issues; and Jane Sherburne, general counsel of investment firm BNY Mellon.
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