The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is planning to launch a web site on December 18 that will allow users to view and submit comments on any federal regulation.

Almost two years after President Bush took office, Mark B. McClellan -- a top health policy adviser to the president and brother of White House spokesman Scott McClellan -- has been confirmed to serve as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Unlike many Bush appointees who are now responsible for regulating former employers, McClellan has never worked for the pharmaceutical industry. This helped secure the support of Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), chair of the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the nomination, who reportedly insisted on independence.

A series of influential studies purporting to show that federal regulation is broadly irrational are based on data that is highly misleading and frequently manufactured to fit a preconceived point of view, according to an investigation by Richard Parker, a law professor at the University of Connecticut, who presented his findings October 17 during a conference of the American Bar Association.

A letter to President Bush from leading congressional Democrats blasts the administration for undermining and dismantling the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), considered the Magna Carta of environmental law. Signed by President Nixon in 1969, NEPA requires agencies to assess the social, economic, and environmental impacts of proposed federal actions by writing a detailed statement called an Environmental Impact Analysis. This statement must also present alternatives to actions that might harm the environment and be subjected to public scrutiny and input.