Washington Needs a Spring Cleaning

Government must focus on results—whether to contain a pandemic or to fix decrepit infrastructure. It must replace accumulated legal layers with simple, coherent codes that give everyone—regulator and regulated alike—the freedom to use their common sense. Doing this will be as historic as it is essential. Unleashing the American spirit of initiative and allegiance to the common good is what will allow us to recover from COVID-19 and move our nation forward.

I, therefore, petition my public officials to carry out a basic overhaul of government at every level: Clean out unnecessary laws, rules, and programs that will impede recovery of business, schools, and other institutions. Appoint independent “spring cleaning commissions” to accelerate revival and to recommend simpler regulatory frameworks moving forward.

Selected Signatories

John E. Abele
Co-founder, Boston Scientific

Lee Sanford Ainslie III
Founder & CEO, Maverick Capital

Robert Alt
President & CEO, The Buckeye Institute

Richard Arum
Dean, School of Education, University of California-Irvine

Linda Avey
Co-founder, 23andme; CEO, Precise.ly, Inc.

Brian Balfour
Executive Vice President, Civitas Institute

Jeremiah A. Barondess, M.D.
Former President, New York Academy of Medicine

Austin Berg
Vice President, Illinois Policy Institute; Co-author, The New Chicago Way

Charlotte B. Beyer
Founder, Institute for Private Investors (IPI)

Anne Board
Management consultant

Kit Bond
Former Governor of Missouri; Former U.S. Senator from Missouri

Bill Bradley
Former U.S. Senator from New Jersey

Horace Brock, Ph.D.
Economist; President, Strategic Economic Decisions, Inc.

William R. Brody, M.D., Ph.D.
Former President, Johns Hopkins University

Kelly Jean Brough
President & CEO, Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce

James P. Cain and Helen Cain
Former Ambassador to Denmark

Arne Carlson
Former Governor of Minnesota

Gerhard Casper
Former President, Stanford University

David Childs
Architect, Civic Leader

Robert Clay
Chairman, Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship

Rick Cole
Former Mayor, City of Pasadena

Anthony Coles
Former Deputy Mayor, NYC

Michael J. Critelli
Former CEO, Pitney Bowes

Mitch Daniels
Former Governor of Indiana

John J. Davenport, Ph.D.
Professor, Fordam University

Daniel DiSalvo
Chair, Political Science, The City College of New York

Christopher DeMuth
Distinguished Fellow, Hudson Institute

Peter Duchin
Civic Leader

David Durenberger
Former U.S. Senator from Minnesota

Douglas Durst
The Durst Organization

James Ellis
Former Dean, USC Marshall School of Business

Alain C. Enthoven, Ph.D.
Economist, Stanford University

Daniel C. Esty
Professor, Yale University

Ron Faucheux
Former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and Secretary of Commerce

Dianne D. Felton
Former Chair, Mechanics Bank

Jeffrey S. Flier, M.D.
Former Dean, Harvard Medical School

Richard N. Foster
Management Consultant, author

Wyche Fowler
Former U.S. Senator from Georgia

Miriam K. Freedman
Author; Special Education Adviser

Allan W. Fung
Mayor, Cranston, RI

Paul Gessing
President & CEO, Rio Grande Foundation

Stephen Goldsmith
Former Mayor, City of Indianapolis
Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

James Grichnik, M.D., Ph.D.
Cleveland Clinic, Indian River Hospital; Medical Director, Scully-Welsh Cancer Center.

Samarth Gupta
Rhodes Scholar, Oxford University; Former White House Analyst

Gillian K. Hadfield
Professor of Law, Director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society, University of Toronto

Jonathan D. Haidt, Ph.D.
Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, NYU Stern School of Business

Robert Heineman, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science Emeritus, Alfred University

Eda Henries
Founder, Henries and Co.

Frederick M. Hess
Director, Education Policy Studies, AEI

Heather R. Higgins
President, Randolph Foundation

Paul T. Hill
Founder, Center on Reinventing Public Education
Research Professor, University of Washington Bothell

Philip K. Howard
Chair, Common Good
Lawyer, Author

Glenn Hubbard, Ph.D.
Russell L. Carson Professor Columbia Business School; Former Chairman, Council of Economic Advisors

Howard Husock
Senior Fellow, Manhattan Institute

Bobby Ray Inman
Retired Admiral United States Navy; Former Director, National Security Agency

Bryan Jones, Ph.D.
Professor, J. J. "Jake" Pickle Regents Chair in Congressional Studies, University of Texas Austin

Marshall D. Kapp, J.D., M.P.H.
Professor Emeritus, Florida State University

Thomas H. Kean 
Former Governor of New Jersey

James M. Kilts
Partner, Centerview Capital; Former CEO, Gillette

Charles E.M. Kolb
Former President, Committee for Economic Development

Kent Lassman
President and CEO, Competitive Enterprise Institute

Shelly Lazarus
Chairman emeritus, Ogilvy & Mather

John LeBoutillier
Former Congressman, news commentator

Yuval Levin
Editor-in-Chief, National Affairs

Paul C. Light, Ph.D.
Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service, New York University

Robert E. Litan
Economist, former Director of Economic Studies Brookings Institution

Joe Lonsdale
Founding Partner, 8VC, Co-Founder Palantir Technologies

Dan Lufkin
Co-Founder, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette

Will Marshall
President, Progressive Policy Institute

David Mathews
President, Kettering Foundation; Former Secretary U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; Former President, University of Alabama

E.J. McMahon
Research Director, Empire Center

Lance Odden
Former Headmaster, Taft School

David Osborne
Progressive Policy Institute
Co-Author, Reinventing Government

Donald J. Palmisano, M.D., J.D.
Former President, American Medical Association

Rohan Pavuluri
CEO & Co-Founder, Upsolve

Jonathan Petts
Executive Director, Immigrants Like Us

Kim Polese
Chairwoman, CrowdSmart, Inc.

Alfred M. Rankin, Jr.
CEO, Nacco Industries Inc.

David S. Schoenbrod
Professor, New York Law School

Peter H. Schuck
Simeon E. Baldwin Professor Emeritus of Law, Yale University

Alan K. Simpson
Former U.S. Senator from Wyoming

Lenore Skenazy
President, Let Grow

Dann Mead Smith
President, Washington Policy Center

James S. Smith
Arnold D. Frese Foundation

Lise T. Spacapan
Former Commissioner DCFS, State of Illinois

Walter Stahr
Biographer

C. Eugene Steuerle
Economist, Urban Institute

Bob Stone
Former senior US official, including “Energizer in Chief, Reinventing Government Initiative”

Ryan Streeter
Director of Domestic Policy, AEI

Jim Strock
Founding Secretary, California Environmental Protection Agency

Joe Tanner
Former Commissioner, Georgia Department of Natural Resources

Vincent S. Tese
Former Chair, New York State Urban Development Corp.

John “Thunder” Thornton
CEO/Founder, Thunder Enterprises

John D. Tickle
Chairman, Strongwell Corporation

Bill Valdez
Former President, Senior Executives Association; Former Official, U.S. Department of Energy

Chilton Varner
Partner, King & Spalding

Paul R. Verkuil
Former Chair, Administrative Conference of the United States; Former President, College of William and Mary

Philip Wallach, Ph.D.
Senior Fellow, R Street Institute

Josh S. Weston
Honorary Chairman, Automatic Data Processing, Inc.

Robert Whitcomb
Former Editorial page editor, The Providence Journal

Ruth Wooden
Retired President, Public Agenda

Tom Wright
President & CEO, Regional Plan Association

William T. Young, Jr.
Businessman, Civic Leader