Public Citizen recently argued an appeal of a terrible court decision that upheld NHTSA's practice of unfairly denying the rights of many across the nation to recall notices and free repairs in certain auto defect cases. NHTSA has been allowing regionally-restricted recalls, which PubCit argues violate the Safety Act. Download their appeal brief and reply brief.

Could it be? The administration might be ready to do something to protect the public? Here's a report from Congress Daily:

Congress Daily is reporting that 23 members of the House are going to hold a press conference today to announce a bipartisan bill to reinstate the industry taxes that made Superfund a "polluter pays" program. Superfund worked for years because the polluters themselves were held responsible for cleaning up after themselves when they left toxic garbage in the environment. Without these industry fees, that burden is shifted onto the innocent: the taxpayers, who are the very same people who are subject to the potential harms from industry's hazardous spew.

OIRA's annual report on the costs and benefits of regulations is apparently coming out today, according to an OMB press release. (The OIRA web page hasn't yet been updated to include the report, but that will presumably happen soon.) OMB Watch filed comments on the report when it was released in draft form in March. It will be interesting in particular to find out if OIRA finally addressed the recurring errors that made their way into this year's draft. Stay tuned....