Eloise Pasachoff has received the annual ABA Award for Scholarship in Administrative Law for her article, The President’s Budget as a Source of Agency Policy Control, 125 Yale L.J. 2182 (2016). Congratulations to Professor Pasachoff for this award!

Professor Pasachoff’s article identifies a source of agency policy control often overlooked in the administrative law literature—the President’s budget powers. The article outlines how the White House acts through the authority of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to prepare a budget, oversee the agencies’ implementation of the budget, and develop management initiatives. The article further identifies seven “levers” the OMB uses to control agency policymaking. Professor Pasachoff argues that these levers of control raise accountability concerns. For example, OMB budget control tends to be opaque, and affords considerable discretion to civil servants and lower-level appointees.  Further, it obscures substantive policy (and political) choices with technocratic-sounding work. Professor Pasachoff argues that, going forward, discussions of presidential control over agency policymaking should consider the OMB’s budget powers.

Our congratulations to Eloise Pasachoff for this well-deserved recognition.