Creating Public Policy: The Chairman’s Memoirs of Four Presidential Commissions

An insider’s account of how presidential commissions create public policy for privacy protection, energy accountability, and privatization. Linowes describes the process designed by private citizens, culminating in needed legislation, a process never beofre revealed so candidly. The privacy protection story is rich in testimony from public and private collectors of personal data as they were pressed, under oath, to reveal how they obtain, use, and abuse the information. The two energy commissions describe the theft of oil on federal and Indian lands by major oil companies and how it was uncovered and dealt with. The second energy panel resolved a major political gridlock by disproving allegatinos of fraud and dishonesty. The privatization effort demonstrated the widespread need to separate the functions of government and business. These panoramic view of commission life will be of value to students and scholars of modern American government as well as the interested public.