Industry Influence and Interference

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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SBA Proposes, Withdraws Proposal to Change Definition of 'Small Business'

Last week the Small Business Administration retracted its proposal to alter a powerful federal designation that affects the work of almost every federal agency. Only "small businesses," designated as such by SBA, are eligible for SBA loans and roughly a fifth of federal procurement contracts. But SBA's "size standards" also grant to small business privileges to challenge agency regulations both in rulemaking and rule enforcement periods. Defenders of agency effectiveness have more at stake in the debate over the definition of small business than is immediately apparent.

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SBA Lobbies States for Small Business Role in Regulation

The Small Business Administration (SBA) has been actively lobbying the states to enact legislation that would increase the role of small business in state regulatory processes, promoting in particular a model bill that would force state agencies to review the costs to small business of proposed public safeguards and, ultimately, all existing state regulations.

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New Bush Regulatory Report: Ex-Agency Workers Describe Anti-Regulatory Agenda

Citizens for Sensible Safeguards released a new report documenting a systematic attack on regulatory protections to a standing-room-only crowd at an event that featured former federal workers who have resigned in protest of that attack. The report, Special Interest Takeover: The Bush Administration and the Dismantling of Public Safeguards, was produced on behalf of Citizens for Sensible Safeguards by OMB Watch and the Center for American Progress.

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Report Details Bush Donors, Industry Paybacks

The Bush-Cheney re-election effort has received $58.1 million from “Rangers” and “Pioneers” (those able to bundle contributions of at least $200,000 or $100,000) who overwhelmingly represent corporate special interests, according to a new report by Public Citizen.

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Administration Asks Manufacturers for Regulatory Hit List

OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), headed by John Graham, is soliciting recommendations for regulatory revisions that would reduce costs for the U.S. manufacturing sector, brazenly putting special interests over the public interest.

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Commerce Dept. Calls for More Regulatory Rollbacks

The Commerce Department released a report Jan. 16 on U.S. manufacturing that calls on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to review existing regulations and implement reforms “on a priority basis” to reduce costs on manufacturers. Curiously, the report does not mention that OMB actually did this during the first two years of the Bush administration, using its annual report to Congress on federal regulation to identify and weaken a host of significant standards, such as controls on power-plant emissions.

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Administration Moves to Allow Dumping of Mining Waste Into Streams

The Bush administration unveiled a proposal Jan. 7 that would gut a prohibition against the dumping of mining waste within 100 feet of streams, easing the way for new mountaintop mining, which generates large amounts of dirt and rock waste.

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GAO Finds USDA Breaking Rules by Promoting Tobacco Exports

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is helping American tobacco companies promote their products overseas despite congressional restrictions banning such activity, according to a recent report by the Government Accounting Office (GAO). Congress, concerned about the government’s promotion of American tobacco products in foreign markets, passed legislation in the 1990s prohibiting agencies -- including the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) -- from funding tobacco export programs.

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Administration Issues Report on Small Business Paperwork

An administration task force, led by the Office of Management and Budget, published a draft report on May 9 that makes recommendations to reduce reporting burdens on small business. Comments on the report -- which is mandated by the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act (SBPRA), enacted a year ago -- are due by June 4. In the draft report, the task force addresses the following issues:

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Industry, OMB Press EPA to Offer Exemptions to Clean Air Standards

At the urging of industry and the White House Office of Management and Budget, and in apparent violation of the Clean Air Act, EPA is considering whether to offer regulatory exemptions to facilities that emit hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) based on the level of health risks posed to surrounding communities. Such a move signals a desire within the administration to abandon stringent technology-based controls -- successfully employed for more than a decade -- which could significantly weaken clean air standards and result in more pollution over time.

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