Obama to name law professor as regulatory czar: report
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The incoming administration of President-elect Barack Obama will name Cass Sunstein, a Harvard Law School professor who pioneered efforts to design regulation around the ways people behave, as regulatory czar, the Wall Street Journal reported.
A report on WSJ.com said Sunstein would head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, overseeing "regulations throughout the government, from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration."
The Journal cited an unidentified Obama transition official for the report.
"Obama aides have said the job will be crucial as the new administration overhauls financial-services regulations, attempts to pass universal health care and tries to forge a new approach to controlling emissions of greenhouse gases," according to the report posted late on Wednesday.
It said that under President George W. Bush, the office has been dominated by officials "with a strong deregulatory bent."
Sunstein and Obama have been friends since they were both on the faculty of the University of Chicago law school, it said.
(Reporting by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
