Setting and Enforcing Regulations

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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Peer review guidelines: Sneak attack, yet again

Jan 12, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Late one Friday afternoon in late December -- the week before Christmas, no less -- OIRA finally released the long-awaited final version of its peer review guidelines. As the Information & Access team discusses here, the final guidelines make only modest changes to a faulty policy designed to burden the process of generating the science and other information that will become the basis of sensible regulation.

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New Forestry Rules Endanger Wildlife, Limit Public Participation

Three days before Christmas the U.S. Forest Service gave the timber and paper industry an early Christmas present, announcing a final rule that will drastically overhaul the U.S. Forest Serviceï¿½s land management system.

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White House Meets with Industry to Plan Deregulatory Strategy

Over the past several months, the White House has met with industry representatives to develop a sweeping deregulatory strategy. The White House's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has given industry a leg-up on the upcoming reauthorization of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). According to Inside EPA, OIRA has been working with a coalition of industry groups to strategize using the PRA reauthorization as a vehicle for developing new anti-regulatory policies.

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Expect Anti-Regulatory Bills in 109th Congress

When the 109th Congress reconvenes on Jan. 20, expect Republican lawmakers to continue work on anti-regulatory measures that will protect industry interests at the cost of the public interest. House Speaker Tom DeLay (R-TX) has repeatedly mentioned “universal regulatory reform” as one of several high-priority items for the 109th Congress’s agenda, and the House Government Reform Committee announced late last year that reauthorization of the Paperwork Reduction Act will be only one part of “a reform-focused legislative and oversight agenda that will streamline the federal government.”

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Bush Renominates Industry-Backed Radical Right-wingers to Federal Bench

Just two days before Christmas, the White House announced its intention to renominate to the federal bench 20 radical right-wing and corporate-friendly extremists whose nominations had been thwarted in the 108th Congress. The White House will be supported in this effort by both social conservatives, who see Bush nominees as friendly to conservative positions on controversial social issues like abortion, and the corporate sector, which is dedicating millions of dollars in an unprecedented lobbying effort on behalf of the Bush judicial picks. Safeguards at Stake

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White House Advances Anti-Regulatory Hit List

The White House waited until eight days before Christmas to reveal its new regulatory ï¿½reformï¿½ plan instructing agencies to review and complete action plans on a regulatory hit list of over 200 suggestions for reversing protections of the public interest, mostly proposed by industry lobbyists.

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Overtime Amendment Stripped from Appropriations Bill

<p>An amendment to protect overtime rights and invalidate harmful changes to overtime regulations was defeated. Read more here from OMB Watch's Federal Budget & Tax weblog.

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Listeria: How the food industry gets away with murder

Jan 4, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Be sure to check out the latest report from the Consumer Federation of America: “Not ‘Ready to Eat’: How the Meat and Poultry Industry Weakened Efforts to Reduce Listeria Food-Poisoning.” It’s the harrowing story of the Bush administration reversing course from the Clinton administration and weakening efforts to protect the public from Listeria, a deadly foodborne pathogen, in order to serve its friends in the food industry.

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Hit and Run: Environment

Dec 20, 2004 by Guest Blogger

What a way to leave EPA: outgoing EPA Administration Mike Leavitt released regulations allowing U.S. farmers who grow certain crops to continue using methyl bromide, a farm chemical that depletes the ozone and causes cancer. The chemical was scheduled for world-wide phase-out under the Montreal Protocol, but the new EPA regs mean a 2 million pound increase in 2005. [AP, NRDC]
The LA Times reports on the Pentagon's efforts to exempt itself from environmental laws:

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The Bush Regulatory Record: A Pattern of Failure

Pattern_of_Failure How far has the administration gone in placing special interests over the public interest? Read The Bush Regulatory Record: A Pattern of Failure, which analyzes the Fall 2003 and Spring 2004 editions of the Unified Agenda and places them in the four-year context.