Building On Regulatory Foundations and Bridging to the Future

The IBM Center for The Business of Government and the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center gathered regulatory experts to reflect on regulatory foundations and explore emerging opportunities and challenges for good regulatory practice.

business of government regulation image

By

Dan Chenok

Executive Director

IBM Center for The Business of Government chenokd@us.ibm.com

Susan Dudley

Founder and Former Director

George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center sdudley@gwu.edu

The event, "Building on Regulatory Foundations and Bridging to the Future," commemorated the 30th anniversary of Executive Order 12866 and 20th anniversary of Circular A-4. Taking place a couple weeks before ChatGPT’s first birthday, the event welcomed 100+ participants and featured keynote speaker, Cass Sunstein of Harvard Law School.

This report captures the multiple blogs written about the event including the five breakout sessions:

  • Engaging the public for more responsive regulation. This session, led by George Washington University political science professor, Steven Balla explored how emerging technologies could affect public engagement in rulemaking, and the threats and opportunities of generative AI.
  • Is OIRA still fit for purpose? Ohio State University law professor, Bridget Dooling led a session exploring OIRA’s role in today’s government and considering whether OIRA is well-positioned to fulfill its various missions into the future.
  • Generative AI applications to rule development & evaluation. This session was led by David Bray, Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center and Andy Fois, Chair of the Administrative Conference of the United States. It addressed several questions. How should the government get ahead of issues involving the intersection of GenAI and other algorithmic tools in rule development and evaluation, and what are federal administrative agencies are already doing? What are the beneficial uses and risks? How will the Presidential Executive Order of October 30th,2023 on AI and AI Safety, as well as the follow-up draft OMB guidance to agencies for its implementation, shape additional steps in 2024 and beyond.
  • Improving evidence for prospective & retrospective policy analysis. Nick Hart, president of the Data Foundation explored how we can leverage Circular A-4 and the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act to encourage more retrospective evaluation for regulations.
  • Agile regulation. Michael Fitzpatrick, Brunswick Group used the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA)’s recent report as the basis for this breakout discussion. NAPA offered nine tenets for an Agile Regulatory Framework to help federal agencies meet public needs in an increasingly fast-paced and dynamic environment, marked particularly by rapid and impactful technology change.

We hope that the insights and findings in this report help government leaders and stakeholders meet agency missions.

Building On Regulatory Foundations