Protecting Consumers

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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more news

Budget Nausea: House to Cut Food Safety Spending

Jun 3, 2011 by Matthew Madia

House appropriators this week approved major budget cuts for the two agencies responsible for protecting the American food supply: the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS – responsible for meat, poultry, and some dairy) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA – responsible for the rest).

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FDA Cracking Down on Dangerous Food Imports

May 6, 2011 by Matthew Madia

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued two new standards May 4 intended to protect Americans from potentially contaminated foreign food.

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Watch What You Eat: A Groundbreaking Report on Food-Pathogen Combinations

Four months after President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), a groundbreaking report from the Emerging Pathogens Institute (EPI) has highlighted the ten food-pathogen combinations that are the greatest burden on public health.

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Regulations Do Not Hinder U.S. Job Market, Paper Finds

Regulations designed to protect consumers, workers, and the environment do not have a negative impact on the job market and, in some cases, actually spur job creation, according to new research from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). The EPI paper, Regulation, Employment, and the Economy: Fears of job loss are overblown, shows that recent criticism surrounding regulations' impact on jobs is misguided and not reflective of economic data.

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FDA Makes Food Recall Search Consumer-Friendly

Apr 12, 2011 by Hal Gordon*

Last week, the FDA announced the release of a new Web search tool that will allow quicker and easier product recall searches. A new, consumer-friendly search tool covering food, drug, animal product, and medical device recalls, was mandated by the recently enacted FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

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Net Neutrality Vote a Political Stunt

Apr 5, 2011 by Matthew Madia

Anti-government House members are trying to use the Congressional Review Act – an obscure law that allows Congress to overturn agency rules through an expedited process – to reject a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule meant to preserve a fair and open Internet structure. But the Congressional Review Act is a complicated law, and, in this case, it simply won’t work.

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Transparency at Risk in Budget Debate

Penny-pinching fever has engulfed Washington, with both parties eager to root out perceived wasteful spending. Several proposals look for savings in the government's information dissemination programs. While some of the proposals are carefully targeted reductions, others would slash funding indiscriminately with damaging consequences to some innovative transparency projects and programs.

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Congress Pushes to Strip EPA Authority to Regulate Greenhouse Gases

Congressional leaders are acting on several proposals to strip the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). A House committee has passed one piece of legislation, and the Senate is expected to vote on a similar measure when it reconvenes in late March.

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A Strong FDA Benefits the Economy

Mar 9, 2011 by Matthew Madia

Contrary to the recent claims of many House Republicans, regulation can actually be of great benefit to the U.S. economy, as OMB Watch discussed in the latest issue of our newsletter, The Watcher. One place where that is especially true is at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where regulators ensure not only safe and healthy food and medical products but also provide stability and predictability for the industries they oversee.

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Regulation a Boon for the Economy, Reports Show

Amid a tide of Republican complaints over regulations’ impact on economic growth, two new government reports show that the economic benefits of rules outstrip compliance costs by billions of dollars every year.

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