OIRA: The tiny office that's about to remake the federal government

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

OIRA — the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs — is an obscure, but powerful federal office around the corner from the White House. President Trump has decided that it should get even more powerful.

For the last 45 years, OIRA has overseen most federal agencies by reviewing proposed regulations to make sure they agree with the President's policies and don't conflict with the work of other agencies. But one set of federal agencies has always been exempt from this review process — independent federal agencies like the SEC, FTC, FCC, and Federal Reserve. Until now.

According to a new executive order, those independent agencies are about to get a lot less independent. We take a look at what this change could mean for financial markets...and the future of American democracy.

This episode was produced by James Sneed and Willa Rubin. It was edited by Jess Jiang and engineered by Jimmy Keeley. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:06.1	So I want you to rank the following in terms of your emotional attachment to them.
0:13.0	Chocolate, sunsets, puppies, the study of regulation.
0:18.9	Let's see, puppies, chocolate, sunset, the study of regulations.
0:25.3	It comes the last place.
0:26.7	I was sure it was going to be number one.
0:28.5	Well, you know, I'm approaching retirement, so I'm trying to get my head in a different place.
0:34.1	That is Susan Dudley.
0:36.8	Susan worked on regulation in the Reagan administration and for both Bush administrations.
0:42.8	She's built her entire career around trying to help government agencies write better rules.
0:48.4	Where I spent most of my energy and my focus and my time, it would definitely start with the study of regulations.
0:56.8	And then maybe puppies second.
0:58.2	And then maybe puppies.
0:59.6	These days, she teaches public policy at George Washington University, where she also founded
1:04.6	the regulatory study center.
1:06.7	You know, when I tell people that I study regulation, often their eyes will glaze over and they'll try to find someone else to talk to.
1:14.1	But increasingly people are realizing that's where the action is. That's where public policy gets made. It's where the rubber hits the road.
1:22.6	Because, yes, Congress writes the laws that govern the country, but laws only go so far.
1:28.2	Take car safety. In 1966, Congress passed the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.
1:34.9	But the law didn't specify all the rules for how cars were supposed to be made safer.
1:41.1	Instead, the finer points of writing those rules were left to a federal agency,
1:46.3	the Department of Transportation. People are very familiar with how a bill becomes a law from the
	...

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