May 2025

Photo caption: Professor of Economics and International Affairs Tara Sinclair (left) and Zhoudan (Zoey) Xie celebrate Zoey's hooding ceremony upon her completion of the PhD in Economics.

Congrats to all of the 2025 grads at GW! In the Regulatory Studies Center, Sarah Hay received her Master of Public Policy with a concentration in regulatory policy and also added a Graduate Certificate in Regulatory Policy and Practice from GW’s Trachtenberg School (part of the inaugural cohort for the new certificate).

Nick Hanset has completed his JD at GW Law. Samuel Sarfo is a newly minted Trachtenberg MPA in Public Finance. 

And Zhoudan (Zoey) Xie is moving on from the Center after completing her PhD in Economics. What an impressive 7 years she’s had with the Center! We are excited to see her expertise will be highly valued in her new role as an economist. 

The Regulatory Studies Center continued in April its seminar series for Congressional staffers at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center. Professor Susan Dudley presented the fundamentals of separation of powers, recent Supreme Court administrative law decisions, regulatory procedure, the rulemaking process, agency structure and actions, and oversight. Read More >

Presidents of both parties have launched efforts to make government regulations more efficient and effective, including through evaluation of outcomes (Obama), offsetting the costs of new regulations by removing old ones (Trump), and more robust engagement of the public in designing new regulations (Biden). These have faced data challenges, but generative AI may offer new opportunities for examining and evaluating regulations, and engaging diverse perspectives. These panels of experts from government, academia, and the private sector will explore whether and how AI can improve government outcomes. Read More >

The Regulatory Review recently published a series of essays examining the pace and potential impact of President Trump’s first 100 days. Several of the featured articles were written by scholars of the RSC:

On Direct Exercises of Presidential Power, Richard J. Pierce, Jr. 

Amid the Norm Smashing, Some Durability Remains, Susan Dudley

When Is an Independent Agency Independent?, Roger Nober

May 9, 2025
Commentary by Sarah Hay

In the first 100 days of the second Trump administration, both Congress and the White House have employed standard tools to enact quick deregulatory accomplishments. Read More >

May 2, 2025
Journal article by Xiaohan Ma & Zhoudan (Zoey) Xie

This paper examines the economic impact of uncertainty surrounding U.S. regulatory policies of the energy sector. We first construct a monthly-frequency measure of regulatory uncertainty related to oil and gas production using natural language processing on over 600,000 U.S. newspaper articles published from 1985 to 2021. We then conduct empirical analysis via structural VAR models with the constructed oil regulatory uncertainty index, oil market variables, and aggregate economic data. Read More >

April 30, 2025
Commentary by Finn Dobkin

Since the start of his second administration, President Trump has sought to use emergency powers to expedite energy and grid infrastructure development. To do so, he has been modifying permitting and regulatory requirements to ease construction of energy infrastructure. Read More >

April 23, 2025
Commentary by Susan Dudley & Sarah Hay

In his first 100 days, President Trump and his administration have taken steps that limit opportunities for public commenting. In this commentary, we identify three instances in which the administration aims to change how the public participates in the regulatory process. Read More >

April 16, 2025
Working Paper by Finn Dobkin

New working paper examines recent legal and institutional changes surrounding the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ)’s authority to issue binding National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules. Read More >

March 27, 2025
Commentary by Natasha Schmitt Caccia Salinas, Lucas Thevenard Gomes, Flávio Saab

A study analyzing RIAs conducted by Brazilian federal regulatory agencies revealed that, in many cases, only one or two regulatory alternatives were evaluated. Moreover, the status quo option (doing nothing) was frequently excluded from the analysis. This pattern suggests that RIA may often serve as a mere procedural formality, used primarily to validate pre-determined decisions—thereby diminishing its effectiveness. Read More >

Roger Nober was a panelist at the American Boating Conference of the National Marine Manufacturers Association, May 13, Washington, DC.

Susan Dudley, Aram Gavoor and Richard Pierce served on panels at the Federalist Society's Thirteenth Annual Executive Branch Review Conference, May 7, Washington, DC.

Susan Dudley was a panelist at the Federalist Society webinar: Weighing Regulations: The Metrics of White House Review, April 23.

Susan Dudley and Aram Gavoor were panelists at the American Law Review's 2025 spring symposium, The Future of Administrative Law, April 18. 

Roger Nober presented at the Pacific Legal Foundation's Regulation by Adjudication Workshop, April 17. 

Starting April 15, Roger Nober serves on the Legal Policy Advisory Board of the Washington Legal Foundation. 

Susan Dudley presented the Regulatory Policy & Practice seminar, April 15 at the Capitol Visitor Center, Washington, DC. 

Susan Dudley moderated a panel at an April 7-8 workshop of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine: Implications of Recent Supreme Court Decisions for Agency Decision-Making. As a member of the NAS planning committee, she also helped organize the workshop.

Susan Dudley was a panelist at the Federalist Society Ohio Chapters Conference, April 4. 

Susan Dudley and Howard Beales were panelists at the Federalist Society webinar, Agency Independence and Accountability to the Executive, March 28. 

Susan Dudley joined other regulatory law experts on a Penn Program on Regulation program on How is Trump 2.0 Reshaping the Administrative State, March 26.

Ag & Food Policy Summit, March 17. Agri-Pulse summit features a panel discussion with Roger Nober: “How innovation and new technology can boost animal productivity, address disease outbreaks.” National Press Club, Washington, DC.

RSC experts Christopher Carrigan, Susan Dudley, Sarah Hay, Roger Nober and Zoey Xie presented at the 2025 Annual Conference of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis, March 13-14.  

Roger Nober presented the Regulatory Policy & Practice Seminar, March 13 at the Capitol Visitor Center, Washington, DC.  

Roger Nober was quoted in Ballotpedia: Checks and Balances (May 14, 2025).

Roger Nober was quoted in Trade Only Today: Uncertainty, Uncertainty, Uncertainty (May 14, 2025).

Susan Dudley was interviewed in The Hill: 100 Days of Deregulation (April 30, 2025).

Susan Dudley wrote for Forbes: Trump Orders Could Almost Motivate Regulatory Housekeeping (April 30, 2025).

Susan Dudley wrote for Forbes: Starting This Week, Independent Regulatory Agencies Face White House Review Of Their Regulations (April 23, 2025).

Susan Dudley was interviewed in the National Law Journal: Independent Agencies Begin Submitting Rules for White House Review Under New Order (April 21, 2025).

Aram Gavoor was quoted in Bloomberg Law: Trump’s Deregulatory Moon Shot Stretches Rulemaking Authority (April 21, 2025).

Susan Dudley was interviewed on NPR's Planet Money: OIRA: The Tiny Office That's About to Remake the Federal Government (April 16, 2025).

Susan Dudley was quoted in the New York Times: Inside Trump’s Plan to Halt Hundreds of Regulations (April 15, 2025).

Roger Nober was quoted in Common Dreams: 'This Executive Order is Illegal': Trump Attacks Half-Century of Environmental Protections in One Fell Swoop (April 11, 2025).

Roger Nober was quoted in Government Executive: Trump Directive Aims to Speed Up Deregulation by Nixing Public Input (April 10, 2025).

Mary Sullivan was interviewed on NPR: The US Already Has Tariffs on a Few Sectors. It Hasn't Gone That Great (April 2, 2025).

Aram Gavoor was quoted in the Washington Post: Trump Uses Power and Police to Help DOGE Access Independent Agencies (March 28, 2025).

Sarah Hay was cited in The Hill: ‘Review’ Time: Congress Looks to its Own Regulatory Veto Process (March 6, 2025).

Roger Nober was quoted on The National Desk: Trump Pushes for a US Crypto Reserve; What Would that Provide for America? (March 4, 2025).

Steven Balla was quoted in MedPage Today: New HHS Rule Wipes Out Some Public Comment on Rulemaking (March 3, 2025).

Listen to our podcast for insights on regulatory trends. Recent discussions have explored the Congressional Review Act, Biden's Data Security executive order, effective public engagement strategies for federal agencies, and more.