WASHINGTON -- Conservative economist James Miller, a point man in President Reagan's 1981 war on government regulation and red tape, replaced David Stockman Tuesday as director of the powerful Office of Management and Budget.
Reagan was among those on hand as Miller -- confirmed by the Senate 90-2 Friday -- was sworn in during a brief ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.
Miller, 43, the sometimes controversial chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, returns to the office where he made his debut with the administration.
In 1981, Miller oversaw one basic aim of the Reagan revolution -- an attack on government regulation and red tape -- as head of the OMB Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and a regulatory reform task force chaired by Vice President George Bush.
In that dual role, Miller was credited with directing the suspension, recall or repeal of hundreds of regulations opposed by business.
An executive order Reagan signed Feb. 17, 1981, gave the OMB -- and thus Miller -- unprecedented authority over regulatory decisions by federal agencies.
Miller was involved in the administration decision to delay a requirement that automakers install airbags or other passive restraints in cars. Congressional critics alleged his office served as a backroom 'conduit' for industries trying to escape federal regulations.
Miller, whose conservative ideology matches Reagan's, continued the campaign against government intrusion into the private sector at the FTC, where he was dubbed the 'deregulation czar.'
Under his tenure, the FTC approved the biggest mergers in U.S. history -- Standard Oil California's $13.2 billion takeover of Gulf Corp. and Texaco's $10.1 billion acquisition of Getty Oil Co.
A divided FTC, over the objection of many in the auto industry who complained it would create a monopoly, also approved a landmark venture for General Motors and Toyota to build a new line of cars.
While a Reagan loyalist, Miller, a native of Georgia, is expected to be more low key than the outspoken Stockman, whose views on fiscal policy infuriated members of Congress and whose occasional moments of candor -- however discreet -- landed him in hot water with the White House.
Miller worked for the Transportation Department and the Council of Economic Advisers and the Council on Wage and Price Stability in the Nixon and Ford administrations.
He was a member of the Domestic Council Regulatory Reform Group in the Ford White House, served as a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and taught economics at Texas A&M University.
To replace Miller, Reagan named Terry Calvani as acting FTC chairman. Calvani, 38, a former law professor at Vanderbilt University, has been with the FTC since November 1983.
He will remain in the post until Reagan nominates and the Senate confirms a new FTC chief.
