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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

Court Blocks Bush Rule Allowing Guns in Parks

Mar 20, 2009 by Matthew Madia

Gun safety and park conservation advocates scored a victory yesterday when a federal judge temporarily blocked a Bush administration regulation permitting loaded weapons in national parks.

read in full

Government Improvement Panel Finally Funded

Mar 19, 2009 by Matthew Madia

In some belated news, the FY 2009 appropriations bill signed into law March 11 includes funding for the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). ACUS will receive $1.5 million of the omnibus spending bill’s $410 billion total haul.

read in full

Labor Dept. Reviewing Bush Worker Protection Rules

Mar 17, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The Labor Department today announced separately that it will review two controversial Bush administration policies.

The first is an OSHA proposal that could limit worker exposure to diacetyl, a chemical used to give food a buttery flavor. Factory workers (and possibly consumers) exposed to diacetyl are at a higher risk for developing bronchiolitis obliterans, a potentially fatal lung disease. (Background here.)

read in full

OMB Extends Comment Period on Regulatory Reform

Mar 16, 2009 by Matthew Madia

Update (3/30/09): Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 31, is the final day to submit comments to OMB. You can submit comments by emailing them to oira_submission@omb.eop.gov or faxing them to (202) 395–7245.

read in full

EPA May Revise Bush Ozone Standard

Mar 12, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The Environmental Protection Agency may consider revising the current national air quality standard for ozone, or smog, set in March 2008 by the Bush administration.

read in full

Obama Turning Back Clock on Some Bush Midnight Rules

The Obama administration is taking action to reverse controversial regulations finalized in the closing days of the Bush administration, including one affecting endangered species and another limiting access to reproductive health services.

read in full

Experts Vie to Influence Obama on Regulatory Reform

Regulatory experts across the country are angling to change the way federal regulations are written and approved. Since President Barack Obama issued a memo Jan. 30 instructing his administration to rethink the executive order that governs the federal regulatory process, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has been accepting public comments on ideas for reform and meeting with stakeholders.

read in full

Obama Neuters Bush Rule on Endangered Species

Mar 4, 2009 by Matthew Madia

Yesterday, President Barack Obama issued a memo regarding a Bush-era regulation that weakened the Endangered Species Act. The rule was one of Bush’s many midnight regulations; it went into effect Jan. 15, less than a week before Bush left office.

read in full

Endangered Species Rule Targeted in House Spending Bill

Feb 27, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The House version of the FY 2009 omnibus appropriations bill, passed on Feb. 25, contains a provision that could reverse a Bush-era rule that weakened the Endangered Species Act. The regulation, published jointly Dec. 16 by the departments of Interior and Commerce and effective as of Jan. 15, was pilloried by environmentalists who say it will cut experts out of the process for listing species as endangered.

read in full

HHS Will Revise Bush Reproductive Health Rule

Feb 27, 2009 by Matthew Madia

The Health and Human Services Department will revise a controversial regulation finalized under the Bush administration. The rule, which took effect Jan. 20, gives health care providers the right to refuse to provide women with access to or information about reproductive health services, if the provider objects on moral or religious grounds. It is sometimes called the provider conscience rule.

read in full