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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White House Power Grab Puts Public at Risk

Statement of Robert Shull, Director of Regulatory Policy & Adam Hughes, Budget Policy Analyst
The White House submitted a legislative proposal to Congress today that would imperil the balance between the executive and legislative branches by concentrating power in the White House free of democratic accountability and would expose long-standing public protections to powerful special interests and industry insiders.

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Costs of Work-Related Harms Underestimated but Soaring

Even as the cost of serious workplace injury continues to soar, new research concludes that those costs are significantly underestimated. A recent report by insurance company Liberty Mutual revealed that the cost of serious workplace injuries has skyrocketed in recent years. After adjusting for inflation in both health care costs and wages, Liberty Mutual calculated that the cost of serious workplace injuries increased by 12.1 percent between 1998 and 2002, with over half of that increase occurring in 2002.

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OMB Report on Regulation Misguided, Misleading

An annual draft report from the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) misleads the public on regulatory safeguards and makes OMB appear poised to impose misguided anti-regulatory policies, OMB Watch and other public interest groups told the White House last week. About the Report

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Senate Investigates the Program Assessment Rating Tool

On Tuesday, June 14 the Senate subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security held a hearing on accountability and results in federal budgeting. Specifically, the hearing was held to investigate the specific metrics and tools used by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to measure the effectiveness of federal programs, the advantages and disadvantages of using these systems of measurement, and how information obtained is used to increase accountability in federal budgeting.

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H.R. 725 - Regulatory Budgeting Bill

H.R. 725 — Paperwork and Regulatory Improvements Act of 2005 POSITION: We OPPOSE this bill. Description This bill is the first step in the direction of regulatory budgeting. The vision of regulatory budgeting is that agencies are given fictional “budgets” of total costs that can be imposed on industry through regulations. When an agency reaches its fictional budgetary cap, it must cease regulating. The bill would authorize a pilot study of reg budgeting. Official description: 2/9/2005--Introduced.

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OMB Watch Champions Information and Public Access

OMB Watch testified before the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs in a June 14 hearing on the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA).

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Congress Grapples With Industry Influence at FDA

Efforts to free the Food and Drug Administration from the pharmaceutical industry's excessive influence seesawed between success and failure in the same week, as the House voted to ban drug company scientists from FDA advisory committees while an agency whistleblower revealed that a new drug safety board has been tilted in favor of the drug companies. New Drug Safety Board Biased Towards Industry

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EPA's Lead Poison Prevention Program: From Bad to Worse

Jun 3, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Only a few months ago, EPA href="/article/blogs/entry/729/23">replaced plans for developing enforceable standards for lead poisoning prevention in home renovation with a plan for voluntary guidelines. EPA touted the voluntary plan as more flexible for remodeling and renovation companies, and concerned citizens decried the plan as a weakening of congressionally mandated public protections. Now EPA has taken yet another step in the wrong direction: withdrawing its plans for the voluntary standard completely. EPA now has no plans for protecting children and construction workers from lead

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House Considers CDBG But Avoids Attacking PART

In the wake of the White House's attempt to put the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program on the chopping block, a House subcommittee held a hearing to determine whether a program as diverse and flexible as CDBG could be evaluated using OMB's one-size-fits-all performance measurements. Factors Influencing the Hearing

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GOP Seeks Power to Restructure Entire Federal Government

The Bush administration's systematic dismantling of the public's protections could soon accelerate as Republican lawmakers prepare legislation that would permit the unrestrained restructuring of the entire federal government through results commissions and fast-track reorganization authority.

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