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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Bush Suspends Minimum Pay for Contract Workers

Sep 8, 2005 by Guest Blogger

The White House announced that it is suspending its obligations under the Davis-Bacon Act to require a fair minimum wage for contractors working on the reconstruction and recovery efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

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Roberts Showed Prudence in Reg Reform Initiative

Although Supreme Court chief justice nominee John Roberts worked for an administration generally hostile to regulation, documents released by the Reagan Library from his time as White House counsel reveal that he raised considerable objections to at least one of the period’s far-reaching regulatory "reform" proposals.

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Questions About the Army Corps and Cost-Benefit

Sep 2, 2005 by Guest Blogger

As we just posted below, it appears from the PART assessments of the Army Corps of Engineers that USACE has been employing cost-benefit analysis in its internal decisions about projects and priorities. Has cost-benefit analysis -- a game rigged against the public interest -- distorted priorities in USACE and contributed to the failure to protect New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast areas affected by Hurricane Katrina? Here are some questions to ask USACE:

How were "benefits" measured?

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PART of the Problem in New Orleans

Sep 2, 2005 by Guest Blogger

There are plenty of signs that the Bush administration failed to invest in projects that could have prevented the devastation in New Orleans — see this recap from the Center for American Progress for more. For another way in, be sure to look at the White House’s assessment of Army Corps of Engineers programs, using OMB’s Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART).

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CPR Perspectives

Links to perspectives on risk and precaution from the Center for Progressive Reform CPR Perspectives: The Precautionary Principle

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Risk and Precaution Articles from Rachel's Newsletter

Links to news articles and analyses from Rachel's Environment and Health News, a newsletter from the Environmental Research Foundation. #823 -- Urban Legend: Precaution and Cholera in Peru, 04-Aug-05 #820 -- Isn't It Time We Regulated Chemicals?, 23-Jun-05 #811 -- Human Exposure and Health Hazards, Part 2, 17-Feb-05 #810 -- Human Exposure and Health Hazards, Part 1, 03-Feb-05 #801 -- The Chemical Wars, Final Part, 30-Sep-04 #800 -- The Chemical Wars, Part 3, 16-Sep-04 #799 -- The Chemical Wars, Part 2, 02-Sep-04 #798 -- The Chemical Wars, Part 1, 19-Aug-04

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States Present Opportunities and Pitfalls for Progressive Regulation

Although many progressives have begun to focus resources on winning battles in the states, the regulatory record at the state level is characterized by both opportunities and potential pitfalls. Successes at the State Level Under the Bush administration, many important federal regulations have been stalled, weakened or even rolled back. In such cases, states have often been forced to take matters into their own hands, developing their own regulations that are more stringent than the national standards.

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Legislative Update: Federalism Bills

Legislative developments brewing in the 109th Congress could alter the relationships between the federal and state governments, thus potentially distorting important regulatory protections. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act Revisions

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A Table of Requirements for Federal Administrative Rulemaking

A table of requirements that agencies must consider when adopting a rule, prompted by the concerns of the ABA Rulemaking Committee, Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, over the protracted nature of the current rulemaking process. Download Mark Seidenfeld, "A Table of Requirements for Federal Administrative Rulemaking," 27 Fla. St. U.L. Rev. 533 (2000).

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