About OIRA
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA, pronounced "oh-eye-ruh") is a Federal office established by Congress in the 1980 Paperwork Reduction Act. It is part of the Office of Management and Budget, which is an agency within the Executive Office of the President. It is staffed by both political appointees and career civil servants.
Under the Paperwork Reduction Act, OIRA reviews all collections of information by the Federal Government. OIRA also develops and oversees the implementation of government-wide policies in several areas, including information quality and statistical standards. In addition, OIRA reviews draft regulations under Executive Order 12866.
OIRA Administrator
The Office of the Administrator was created by Congress as part of the establishment of OIRA in the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980. The Administrator is nominated by the President and requires Senate confirmation. The current Acting Administrator is Boris Bershteyn.
Boris Bershteyn (Acting Administrator)
Boris Bershteyn was designated by President Obama as Acting Administrator of OIRA in August 2012. He has served as the General Counsel of OMB since July 2011 and as the Deputy General Counsel of OMB from 2009 to 2010. Between his tours at OMB, he served as Special Assistant to the President and Associate White House Counsel, with responsibility for legal issues in regulatory, economic, health, and environmental policy. He also serves on the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States, to which he was appointed by President Obama in 2011. Before joining OMB, he was a litigator at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, LLP, and at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen and Katz in New York. He also served as a law clerk to Justice David H. Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge José A. Cabranes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Stanford University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.
The Associate Administrator
Jeff Weiss
Jeff Weiss serves as the Associate Administrator of the Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), where he helps to lead the Obama Administration's development of regulatory policy, White House review of significant Executive Branch regulatory actions, and the Administration’s regulatory cooperation initiatives with Canada, the European Union (EU), and Mexico.
Previously, Mr. Weiss served as a senior negotiator on regulatory, standards and conformance matters in the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). As Senior Director for Technical Barriers to Trade, Mr. Weiss represented the United States in bilateral, regional and multilateral fora, including the WTO Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade, the Doha Round’s Non-Agricultural Market Access negotiations, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks. Working closely with a formal interagency committee and private sector stakeholders, Mr. Weiss negotiated with U.S. trading partners -- including Brazil, China, the EU, India, Korea, and Mexico -- to address problematic regulations that impeded market access for U.S. producers of numerous industrial and agricultural goods. Mr. Weiss has also worked in various international fora to enhance regulatory transparency, incentivize the development of standards through open, transparent, consensus-based processes, encourage the use of good regulatory practices (including cost-benefit analysis), and facilitate greater regulatory alignment with major U.S. trading partners. In all cases, U.S. positions were formulated with a view to ensuring the continued ability of U.S. regulators to protect the health and safety of American citizens and safeguard the environment, at the levels they consider appropriate.
Mr. Weiss’ previous experience includes serving as Assistant General Counsel at USTR, Assistant Legal Advisor at the Mission of the United States of America to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, and an Associate at Collier Shannon Scott. He received a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an M.P.P. from Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and an A.B. from Duke University.
