Structuring U.S. Innovation Policy: Creating a White House Office of Innovation Policy

June 24, 2009

In a new report, Structuring U.S. Innovation Policy: Creating a White House Office of Innovation Policy, released today by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Duke Law School professors Stuart Benjamin and Arti Rai propose that the Obama administration (or Congress, if Congress is willing) create an Office of Innovation Policy that would draw upon, and feed into, existing regulatory review processes but would have the specific mission of being the “innovation champion” within these processes.

Innovation is central to economic growth and to solving a host of pressing societal challenges. It is therefore critical to ensure that the federal agencies’ actions promote innovation, or at least pursue other social objectives in a manner that is least damaging to innovation. There is no formal process within the executive branch to ensure that this happens, however. In particular, the centralized cost-benefit review performed by OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs generally ignores the impact of agency actions on innovation. A new Office of Innovation Policy would bridge the gap between the traditional business of government and creating innovative leader within OMB’s review process.

Read the report

Related Links

Report release event
April 29, 2009
Details from the event at ITIF to release the report.

Select Media Coverage

Can Government Mandate Innovation?
June 23, 2008
InformationWeek