Longtime FDA Official and Regulatory Expert Randall Lutter to be Visiting Scholar at RFF

FOR RELEASE: May 1, 2010
CONTACT: RFF Office of Communications, 202-328-5026

WASHINGTON – Randall Lutter, former chief economist and Deputy Commissioner for Policy of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, will join Resources for the Future as a Visiting Scholar on May 1.

During his tenure at FDA, Lutter played key roles developing agency positions addressing a variety of public health concerns, ranging from pandemic flu countermeasures to the risks of imported and counterfeit drugs, and from nanotechnology to genetically engineered animals. He also changed the management of FDA’s advisory committees to improve transparency and predictability.  

“We are honored to bring Randy Lutter’s experience and insights to bear on our longstanding interest in regulatory and administrative practice,” said RFF President Phil Sharp. “He has been a central player in federal policymaking on pathbreaking issues of concern to all Americans.”

Lutter plans to write about the economics of selected regulatory issues related to risk, including food safety and the environment.  

Before joining FDA in 2003, Lutter was a resident scholar with the American Enterprise Institute and a fellow with the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, where he wrote extensively on the economics of regulating health, safety, and environmental risks, covering air pollution including greenhouse gases, threats from mercury and lead, and food safety. From 1991 to 1997 he served at the Office of Management and Budget in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, and from 1997 to 1998 he was senior economist for regulation and the environment at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers.

 In 2009, he became senior economist at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget.

Lutter co-edited the 2004 RFF Press book Painting the White House Green: Rationalizing Environmental Policy Inside the Executive Office of the President, which examined the interface between economics and environmental policymaking at the top levels of the federal government.

He received his B.A. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1977 and his M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University.

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Founded in 1952, Resources for the Future is an independent and nonpartisan institution devoted to research and publishing about critical issues in environmental and natural resource policy.