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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more news

Obama's Regulatory Reforms Protect the Status Quo

On Jan. 18, President Obama issued a long-awaited executive order on the regulatory process and two related presidential memoranda. The order and the memos are aimed at reaffirming the existing regulatory process rather than significantly reforming it. The most impactful of the three documents is likely to be the memo on regulatory compliance, which stems from the administration's commitment to greater government accountability.

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House to Make Anti-Regulatory Bill an Early Priority

Jan 24, 2011 by Matthew Madia

Rep. Geoff Davis has introduced a bill that would require Congressional approval of all major rules, a potentially fatal blow to some of the most important safeguards to our health, safety, environment, and economy.

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How Will Deregulation Create U.S. Jobs, Mr. President?

Jan 19, 2011 by Matthew Madia

Yesterday, President Obama signed an executive order instructing agencies in his administration to ferret out environmental, health, and safety regulations that need to be repealed or modified in the name of economic growth.

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OMB Watch Comments on Obama Regulatory Reform Package

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18, 2011—The Obama administration today released three documents aimed at reforming some aspects of the regulatory process. Two of the actions, an executive order and a memorandum on small businesses and job creation, reaffirm existing approaches that have been in place for decades. Another memorandum seeks greater government accountability by directing agencies to disclose more regulatory compliance information. OMB Watch believes that while the reform package ushers in some positive policy measures, it also contains some problematic language and reinforces false notions regarding job creation and strong public protections.

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Wall Street Journal Stumps for Messy Anti-Regulatory Bill

Jan 14, 2011 by Matthew Madia

Today, the Wall Street Journal came out in favor of the REINS Act (introduced last year and sure to be introduced again) which would require all new major regulations – regardless of their benefit to the public – go before Congress before taking effect.

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GOP Eyes EPA's Climate Change Regulations as First Target

Jan 14, 2011 by Hal Gordon*

On January 2nd, the EPA began regulating climate altering greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions from stationary sources like for the first time. The long overdue action has the new Congress up in arms.

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Rules to Watch for in 2011

Federal agencies have released their rulemaking agendas for 2011, providing the public with a roadmap of the health, safety, and environmental safeguards it can anticipate in the new year.

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Despite Philosophical Shift, Regulatory Process Largely Unchanged

Jan 6, 2011 by Matthew Madia

The Obama administration has adopted a public-centric regulatory philosophy in its first two years in office, but has failed to transform the regulatory process as promised, according to a new OMB Watch report released today. The report, The Obama Approach to Public Protection: The Regulatory Process, is the third and final in a series of OMB Watch reports assessing the administration’s record on regulatory issues.

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Report Finds Regulatory Process Changes Stalled at Midterm Point of Obama Administration

WASHINGTON, Jan. 6, 2011—Today, OMB Watch released the third and final report in a series on public protections and the Obama administration. The new report, The Obama Approach to Public Protection: The Regulatory Process, finds that although the Obama administration's overall regulatory philosophy is strikingly different from that of the previous administration, promised changes to the federal regulatory process have stalled out.

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Senator Plotting Attack on Public Safeguards

Dec 14, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) took to the pages of The Washington Post yesterday to peddle new, anti-regulatory legislation he plans to introduce in 2011. Warner’s legislation “would require federal agencies to identify and eliminate one existing regulation for each new regulation they want to add.”

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