Executive Session

Floor Speech

EXECUTIVE SESSION -- (Senate - September 09, 2009)

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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about Cass Sunstein and his qualifications to be Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. I thank Senator Lieberman for his leadership. I am going to try not to say the word ``OIRA'' in my remarks because it is a very difficult agency, and no one is quite sure what it does. But I can tell you it does something very important, which is to cut through the redtape for citizens and to try to get some sensible rules for this country.

How do I know Cass Sunstein? Back in the 1980s I was privileged to have him as my law professor at the University of Chicago. I took his administrative law class, and he was also my adviser on the law review.

His career as a legal scholar was just beginning to take off, but he was already making a very strong impression as a teacher. I think many of my fellow classmates believed he was, in fact, their favorite teacher.

When we first saw Cass Sunstein in class, he looked like a boy in a man's suit. He was so thin but with such enthusiasm. These were the days before white boards, and he would always get a lot of white chalk on his black suits, which he seemed oblivious to, but he was far from an absent-minded professor. He would race along a mile a minute in his lecture, a fountain with a never-ending stream of ideas. He was never boring, which is a tough standard for law students.

Today Professor Sunstein is one of the Nation's most thoughtful and respected legal scholars with a distinguished record of accomplishments. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School, a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, a professor at the University of Chicago for 27 years, the author and coauthor of more than 15 books and hundreds of scholarly articles.

By a large margin, Cass Sunstein is the most cited scholar on any law faculty in the United States of America. One envious observer said:

If you look at what he's written and done, he should be 900 years old.

What are the concerns of his academic work? The overriding concern is we have smart, science-based, cost-effective policies to protect public health and safety, to promote energy security, and to strengthen our economy and financial system.

In a recent book Professor Sunstein coauthored called ``Nudge,'' he wrote that by knowing how people think, we can design rules and policies that make it easier for Americans to choose what is best for themselves and their families. In other words, Cass Sunstein believes the best types of rules and regulations are the ones that encourage American consumers and businesses to make good decisions without demanding that they do so.

I thought a lot about his work when Congress debated the first-time home buyers tax credit which helped spur home sales after months of decline again. Again, if you shape policies and programs that are easy to understand, that provide incentives, that give Americans control over their fate, you get the right results.

That is why it is so important we confirm Cass Sunstein to this critical post. His pragmatic, sensible approach to policy and regulation will help make our Federal agencies work smarter and ensure that our government works better for our citizens and for our businesses.

It is no surprise to me, as Senator Lieberman just discussed, the kind of support that Cass Sunstein has gathered. The Wall Street Journal editorial board has been positive about his nomination. You have heard the support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Farm Bureau Federation, 13 Nobel Prize winners, and C. Boyden Gray, who served as White House Counsel under both Presidents Bush.

While all these individuals and organizations are supportive, what they say about Cass Sunstein is what I have always known about him. He is a pragmatist. He cares about ideas, but ultimately he cares about the right results.

I have heard time and time again from the people in my State office about the redtape and regulations citizens run into on an everyday basis with the U.S. Government. It is time to put someone in this job who actually sees that connection, is able to connect human behavior with what those rules are, and make those rules make some sense. He has the intellect, the ability, and the force to get this done, and I am proud to support his nomination.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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