[NYTimes] Neomi Rao, the Scholar Who Will Help Lead Trump’s Regulatory Assault

on the new head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

permalink: https://nyti.ms/2uZNkNz

Neomi Rao, the Scholar Who Will Help Lead Trump’s Regulatory Assault
By STEVE EDERJULY 9, 2017

WASHINGTON — When George Mason University changed the name of its law school last year to honor Antonin Scalia, the late conservative Supreme Court justice, the tribute rankled many liberal faculty members and students. That the naming was tied to a multimillion-dollar donation from the conservative Charles Koch Foundation only heightened concerns.

One outspoken advocate for the name change was Neomi Rao, an associate law professor who had come to know Mr. Scalia while serving as a clerk for Clarence Thomas, another conservative member of the court. Ms. Rao, a Republican, publicly celebrated the legacy of Mr. Scalia and praised the Koch donation as “game changing” for the law school.

But quietly, Ms. Rao also worked to win over liberal critics.

In a public relations coup, she helped secure an endorsement for the name change from Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the Supreme Court’s most liberal justices and a longtime friend of Mr. Scalia. Justice Ginsburg described the school’s renaming as “altogether fitting.”

Ms. Rao’s ability to work both sides of the ideological divide, emblematic of her career in academia and government, is about to be tested anew. On Monday, the Senate is expected to approve Ms. Rao’s nomination to lead an obscure but powerful White House agency called the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs — placing her at the heart of President Trump’s politically contentious agenda to overhaul government rules and regulations.

The office, created during the Carter administration, approves government data collections and determines whether agencies have sufficiently addressed problems during rule-making. In the end, the administrator accepts regulations or sends them back to be reworked, a decision that can expedite rules or effectively neutralize them by imposing extensive delays.
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more at the link

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Rao cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning for her nomination to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/co...nee-clears-senate-judiciary-committee-n977676

 

Rao confirmed by the Senate:

President Trump’s deregulation czar, Neomi Rao, will fill the federal appeals court seat once held by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, after the Senate confirmed her nomination with a 53-46 party-line vote Wednesday.​

https://www.wsj.com/articles/senate...kavanaughs-seat-11552530005?mod=hp_listb_pos3