On Friday, President Bush signed into law S. 4, Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007. The bill contains a provision which will extend the voting quorum of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) by six months. CPSC is an independent regulatory agency responsible for ensuring product safety by promulgating rules and negotiating or forcing recalls.

Yesterday was a busy day for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The panel approved legislation which would force EPA to decide on California's request to implement its own vehicle emissions standards. (More on California's request here.) The bill — introduced by Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) — would also prevent delay from occurring in the future by giving EPA a 180 day window to decide on future requests.

As of July 24, agencies are to be in full compliance with President Bush's recent changes to the regulatory process. But the American people remain in the dark in knowing how these changes will influence the way our government operates. A new analysis by OMB Watch reiterates our concerns with the changes, identifies the many questions that remain, and describes Congress's efforts to mitigate their impact through oversight hearings and proposed legislation. Read the analysis: E.O. 13422: Unanswered and Unaccountable

The Associated Press (AP) published a story today noting the decline in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) criminal enforcement of polluters. According to the article, "The number of the Environmental Protection Agency's criminal investigators has dropped this year to 174, below the 200-agent minimum required by Congress, even as the EPA's overall criminal enforcement budget rose nearly 25 percent over three years to $48 million, according to EPA records." Civil settlements, however, which require spending on pollution controls, are increasing.