Blog: The Fine Print / posts by Jessica Randall
How Many More Food Recalls Will It Take to End Delay on New Food Safety Rules?
Aug 24, 2012 by Jessica Randall
On Aug. 22, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that cantaloupes from Chamberlain Farms in Indiana are being recalled because of Salmonella contamination, which has infected 178 people in 21 states, causing 62 hospitalizations and 2 deaths.
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Back-to-School Season Safer for Kids Thanks to Product Safety Law
Aug 15, 2012 by Jessica Randall
It's back-to-school season! In cities and towns across the country, parents and kids are out shopping for school supplies, making sure everyone's ready to head back to the classroom. The products they're buying are safer than they were a generation ago thanks to important safety protections we’ve built over the past four decades and recent improvements in those standards.
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Updated: House Majority Trying to Shut Down Safeguards – Again
Jul 20, 2012 by Jessica Randall
The highlight of next week's legislative calendar in the House is likely to be a vote on H.R. 4078, the misleadingly named "Red Tape Reduction and Small Business Job Creation Act." With this vote, the House majority is set to launch yet another attack to shut down the safeguards that protect Americans against health, safety, and economic disasters.
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National Transportation Safety Board: Pipeline Regulations Need Teeth
Jul 13, 2012 by Jessica Randall
On July 10, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced its report on the 2010 Kalamazoo River oil spill in Michigan. The report is a scathing indictment of Enbridge Energy, the company responsible for the safety of the pipeline involved in the spill, but also blames inadequate federal regulation.
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The Land of the Free and the Home of Overdue Food Safety Rules
Jul 5, 2012 by Jessica Randall
The 390 Americans who recently got sick from Salmonella in seafood probably missed out on yesterday's holiday celebrations. But they weren't the only ones who weren't celebrating: food safety advocates were also bemoaning yet another missed Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) deadline.
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Why "Obamacare" Supporters Need to Care about the Health of the Regulatory System
Jun 28, 2012 by Jessica Randall
By now, you’ve almost certainly heard about the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in “the health care case” (National Federation of Independent Businesses v. Sebelius). In short, the majority ruled that the mandate is a legitimate exercise of Congress’s power to tax and that financial incentives can be used to encourage states to expand Medicaid eligibility.
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Supreme Court Strikes Down Montana Anti-Corruption Law as Corporate Cash Continues to Flood Elections
Jun 25, 2012 by Jessica Randall
In its 2010 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a law that had banned corporations from running ads supporting or opposing candidates for the House, Senate, and the presidency. The decision opened the floodgates for wealthy donors and corporations to establish super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited funds from any source. Today, the Supreme Court had an opportunity to learn from this mistake and correct its error.
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Farming Out the Story on EPA Regulations
Jun 18, 2012 by Jessica Randall
The "Farm Bill" (S. 3240, formally titled the Agriculture Reform, Food, and Jobs Act of 2012) is fast becoming a magnet for a batch of anti-regulatory amendments. This is just the latest in a series of attempts to tack on damaging, unrelated provisions to legislation moving through the chamber.
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International Regulatory Cooperation: Will Harmonization Protect the Public or Prioritize Corporate Profits?
May 3, 2012 by Jessica Randall
A May 1 Executive Order on international regulatory cooperation has raised questions about how regulatory agencies set their priorities. Regulatory cooperation is neither a particularly new idea, nor an inherently bad one – but if not handled carefully, it could undercut the public protections on which Americans depend.
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Maybe It's Time for a Moratorium on Bad Ideas in the House of Representatives
Apr 27, 2012 by Jessica Randall
Imagine for a moment that you're in the last few weeks of your current job. Your final goal is to complete an important, long-term project that you've been working on for several years. Finishing this project will be a major milestone and will benefit people both inside and outside your organization. Suddenly, your employer makes a new policy: people aren't allowed to complete projects during their last few weeks with the organization. You'd probably be confused, even furious, and rightfully so, because all of your hard work would have been for nothing. A policy like that just wouldn't make sense, yet it's similar to what the House wants to do to those who have been working to develop and improve our nation's public protections.
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