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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Environmental, Worker Safety Rules Targeted by Industry Groups

The Small Business Administration's (SBA) Office of Advocacy has finalized a list of ten rules it will encourage federal agencies to modify. The Office of Advocacy compiled the list after receiving recommendations from small businesses and industry lobbyists.

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Regulatory Hit-List Finalized

Feb 28, 2008 by Matthew Madia

Today, the Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy announced its final list of regulations under its regulatory review and reform initiative. Ultimately, this list tees up 10 rules the Bush administration may attempt to rollback in its final year in office.

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OK Corral May Gain National Park Status

Feb 27, 2008 by Matthew Madia

The Bush administration will likely spend its last year in power trying to accomplish through regulation what it cannot accomplish legislatively. Associated Press reporter Matthew Daly (via GovExec.com) portends another of these 11th hour administrative changes: Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said Friday that his department will review gun laws on lands administered by the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Officials will draw up new rules by April 30 for public comment, Kempthorne said in a letter to 50 senators who requested the review.

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Governors Strike Back on Bush Attempt to Gut Medicaid, SCHIP

Feb 27, 2008 by Matthew Madia

The Bush administration's Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has spent the better part of the past year pushing for changes at the federal level that would make it more difficult for states to administer government healthcare benefits.

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OMB Reports $508 Million in E-Gov Savings; Congress Remains Doubtful

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a report to Congress Feb. 14 that calculates the benefits of President Bush's 24 E-Government (E-Gov) Initiatives at approximately $508 million in Fiscal Year 2007, based on agencies' estimates. Congressional skepticism of the Initiatives, and subsequent reluctance to fund them, led OMB to develop a questionable funding mechanism using agency contributions from their annual budgets.

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Multiple Rules Work in Concert to Undermine Medicaid

Feb 15, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Bush administration is pursuing or has achieved several policy goals that work to cut social support services by reducing federal funding for Medicaid programs. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released all of these policies — three proposed rules, one interim final rule, and two final rules — in the past nine months.

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OMB Watch up for Online Advocacy Award

Feb 13, 2008 by Matthew Madia

Do you like OMB Watch? Would you like to boost our fragile self-esteem? Then please vote for us in the Golden Dot Awards, presented annually for excellence in online campaigning by the Institute for Politics, Democracy & the Internet at George Washington University. OMB Watch has been nominated for Best Issue Advocacy Blog. The nomination is for all three of our blogs: Advocacy Blog, Budget Blog, and Reg•Watch. Vote here: polc.ipdi.org/GoldenDots/voting.htm (OMB Watch has the utmost respect for the other candidates and has vowed to run a clean campaign.)

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Sign up for Reg Watch in Review

Feb 11, 2008 by Matthew Madia

Reg•Watch in Review is a biweekly email update of recent news from the regulatory world. Reg•Watch in Review highlights regulatory process issues and stories about environmental, product safety, workplace safety, and scientific integrity policy. Preview today's edition here, or sign up below. Email Address: * First Name: * Last Name: *

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Big Oil Looks to White House to Weaken Ozone Standard

Feb 8, 2008 by Matthew Madia

Big oil is knocking on the White House's door looking for sympathy over an EPA proposal to tighten the national standard for ozone, aka smog. On January 25, representatives from ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute met behind closed doors with officials from EPA and the White House Office of Management and Budget's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). (Frank O'Donnell at the Blog for Clean Air has the full story.)

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Appreciating the Benefits of Government Regulation

Feb 1, 2008 by Matthew Madia

Check out a new opinion column by OMB Watch titled, "How Bush Undermines Government Regulation," available at the Campaign for America's Future website. The column discusses how cost-benefit analysis in regulatory decision making can be a barrier to the promise of good government: By using cost-benefit analysis and forcing regulators onto an economic playing field, detractors of government regulation have perverted its image into one of job loss and higher consumer prices.

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