Download Public Member Announcement.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:  Kathy Kyle
202.480.2091
kkyle@acus.gov

A Commitment to Collaborative Government
Administrative Conference of the United States Announces Public Members

Washington, D.C., September 28, 2010 – The Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), the newly-revived independent federal agency providing authoritative, nonpartisan legal advice and expertise on administrative law and federal regulatory procedures, today announced its intent to appoint public members.

“These forty distinguished citizens, who together have hundreds of years of high-level experience in the government and private enterprise, have agreed to contribute their expertise and energies toward this project in collaborative governance,” said Paul R. Verkuil, Chairman.  “In a world where the news cycle runs at 100 mph and bloggers, pundits, and politicians shout past each other, we are creating a forum where a politically balanced group of experts from the public and private sectors will team up to make government work better for everyone.”

These individuals will join fifty senior federal officials and notable administrative law experts (as senior fellows) to form the Administrative Conference, an in-house federal laboratory designed to optimize the performance of federal agencies.  The Conference’s mission is to improve how federal agencies interact with citizens and business in regulatory and adjudicatory functions.  When President Obama announced the reestablishment of the Administrative Conference on July 8, 2010, he called it “a public-private partnership designed to make government work better.”

ACUS will help improve agency performance and responsiveness by emphasizing the values of efficiency, fairness, and satisfaction.  Over the years, the Conference has approved more than 200 recommendations for improved agency decision-making, enlightened judicial oversight of the administrative process and creative statutory proposals.  ACUS is an institution designed to produce recommendations that will last beyond the term of any single presidential administration.

“The Conference will succeed or fail based on its reputation for objectivity and balance,” said the Chairman.  “That is why we have selected experts with a broad range of experience, from liberal to conservative, both academics and practitioners, to work through the challenges facing our government.  Moreover, recognizing that experts don’t have all the answers, the Conference will use the latest Web 2.0 technologies to share data and solicit input from the public.”

The reestablished Administrative Conference is ready to support new solutions to the delivery of government services, new ways to improve the effectiveness of government oversight, and new ideas for making government less intrusive and costly.

The following are the public members the Council intends to appoint to assist in this mission:

Fred W. Alvarez

Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, San Francisco, CA

Assistant Secretary of Labor (1987-89) and EEOC Commissioner (1984-87)

Jodie Z. Bernstein

Of Counsel, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP, Washington, DC

Director, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection (1995-2001)

General Counsel, EPA  (1977-79) and Department of Health and Human Services (1979-80)

James Ming Chen

Dean and Professor of Law, Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, University of Louisville

John F. Cooney

Partner, Venable LLP, Washington, DC

Assistant and Deputy General Counsel for Litigation and Regulatory Affairs, OMB (1982-87)

Walter Dellinger

Partner, O’Melveny & Myers LLP, Washington, DC

Acting Solicitor General (1996-97); Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel (1993-96)

Susan E. Dudley

Research Professor, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration

The George Washington University

Administrator, OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (2007-09)

Christopher Edley, Jr.

William H. Orrick Jr. Distinguished Chair and Dean, UC Berkeley School of Law

Associate Director, Office of Management and Budget (1993-95)

Cynthia R. Farina

Professor, Cornell Law School

Principal Researcher, e-Rulemaking Initiative

David C. Frederick

Partner, Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, Washington, DC

Assistant to the Solicitor General (1996-2001)

Jody Freeman

Archibald Cox Professor of Law, Harvard Law School

White House Counselor for Energy and Climate Change (2009-10)

H. Russell Frisby, Jr.

Partner, Stinson Morrison Hecker LLP, Washington, DC

Former Chair, ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice

Patti Goldman

Vice President for Litigation, Earthjustice

Philip J. Harter

Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Missouri

Former Chair, ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice

Senior Staff Attorney, Administrative Conference of the United States (1975-77)

Michael E. Herz

Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law

Chair Elect, ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice

James E. Johnson

Partner, Debevoise & Plimpton, New York, NY

Under Secretary of the Treasury for Enforcement (1998-2001)

John M. Kamensky

Senior Fellow, IBM Center for the Business of Government

Former Deputy Director, National Partnership for Reinventing Government

Peter D. Keisler

Partner, Sidley Austin, Washington, DC

Acting Attorney General (2007); Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division (2003-07)

Simon Lazarus

Public Policy Counsel, National Senior Citizens Law Center

Associate Director, White House Domestic Policy Staff (1977-81)

Ronald M. Levin

Henry Hitchcock Professor of Law, Washington University School of Law

Former Chair, ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice

Carl Malamud

President and Founder, Public.Resource.Org

Founder, Law.Gov

Jerry L. Mashaw

Sterling Professor of Law, Yale Law School

Randolph J. May

President, Free State Foundation

Former Chair, ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice

Doris Meissner

Senior Fellow and Director, US Immigration Policy Program, Migration Policy Institute

Commissioner, Immigration and Naturalization Service (1993-2000)

Nina Mendelson

Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

Gillian E. Metzger

Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

David W. Ogden

Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr

Deputy Attorney General (2009-10); Assistant Attorney General, Civil Division (1999-2001)

John A. Payton

President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.

Former President, D.C. Bar

Richard J. Pierce, Jr.

Lyle T. Alverson Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School

Michael K. Powell

Senior Advisor, Providence Equity Partners

Commissioner and Chairman, Federal Communications Commission (1997-2005)

Saikrishna B. Prakash

Sullivan & Cromwell Professor of Law, University of Virginia Law School

Richard L. Revesz

Dean and Lawrence King Professor of Law, New York University School of Law

Alasdair S. Roberts

Rappaport Professor of Law and Public Policy, Suffolk University Law School

Fellow, National Academy of Public Administration

Teresa Wynn Roseborough

Deputy General Counsel, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company

Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel (1994-96)

Lisa Schultz Bressman

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University Law School

Max Stier

President and CEO, Partnership for Public Service

Deputy General Counsel, Department of Housing and Urban Development (1999-2001)

Fellow, National Academy of Public Administration

Larry D. Thompson

Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Pepsico

Deputy Attorney General (2001-03)

James J. Tozzi

Member, Board of Directors, Center for Regulatory Effectiveness

Assistant Director, Office of Management and Budget (1977-80)

Deputy Administrator, OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (1980-83)

John Vittone

Chief Administrative Law Judge, Department of Labor (Retired)

Administrative Law Section Delegate, ABA Board of Governors

Helgi C. Walker

Wiley Rein, Washington, DC

Associate Counsel to the President (2001-03)

Allison M. Zieve

Director, Public Citizen Litigation Group

About ACUS

The Administrative Conference of the United States is an independent federal agency dedicated to improving the federal administrative process through consensus-driven, applied research, representing an ideal in government administration by providing thoughtful, nonpartisan, authoritative legal advice and expertise on administrative law and federal regulatory procedures.

With membership composed of innovative federal officials and experts from the private industry and academia, the Conference promotes improvements in the efficiency, fairness and transparency of procedures by which federal agencies conduct regulatory programs, administer grants and benefits, and perform related governmental functions.

The Conference is committed to promoting effective public participation and efficiency in the rulemaking process by leveraging interactive technologies and encouraging open communication with the public as well as making improvements to the regulatory process by reducing unnecessary litigation, improving the use of science and improving the use of applicable laws.  Learn more at www.acus.gov.

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