The House Homeland Security Committee this week considered legislation that would greatly reduce the risks and consequences of a terrorist attack on a chemical facility. The bill would enhance and reauthorize the flawed and inadequate existing security rules that are due to expire in October. It is crucial that Congress quickly pass and the President sign this security legislation so no more time is lost while millions of people are needlessly put at risk.

President Obama has yet to nominate an individual to lead the Food Safety and Inspection Service, leaving the agency headless at a time when food safety consistently shows up on the national radar.

The Washington Post ran an article this morning about Recovery Act funding for environmental clean-up being given to contractors with less than stellar performance records. On the surface, this is yet another example of the desperate need for a fully public contractor misconduct database to help prevent awarding contracts to bad actors. But something else jumped out at me from the article that points to a larger problem that I don't think a misconduct database would solve: contractors and executive branch staff are far too cozy.

The White House Office of Management and Budget has approved the Environmental Protection Agency’s determination that greenhouse gas emissions threaten the public. (Thanks to Frank O’Donnell at Clean Air Watch for finding this earlier today; he surmises EPA could officially announce the so-called endangerment finding this week or on Earth Day, April 22.)