President Bush just installed Susan Dudley as White House regulatory czar through a recess appointment. Dudley will now serve in the White House Office of Management and Budget as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). Dudley is a triple threat when it comes to the federal regulatory process.

• First, she is ideologically opposed to regulation of any kind. She is likely to roll back countless public protections, and will be loath to support any new rulemakings.

In today's Washington Post, Ruth Marcus wrote a column deriding the Bush administration's "fox-guarding-the-henhouse personnel plan," in which friends of industry and GOP insiders are rewarded with powerful government jobs.

In March, OMB Watch reported on a controversial industry-backed scientific consultant managing a National Institutes of Health (NIH) office. (The relationship has since been terminated.) Now, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) inspector general's office is investigating over 100 hundred potential conflict of interest cases at NIH. The IG's office is working with the House Energy and Commerce Committee on the issue. In the 109th Congress, that committee uncovered a number of scientists in violation of ethics rules due to their ties to the pharmaceutical industry. In a rather droll comment, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), the committee's top Republican, said, "The NIH specializes in great science, not detective work, and it shows." Read the committee press release here.