White House 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...

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

OIRA meets on animal feed rule

Aug 29, 2005 by Guest Blogger

OIRA met with animal feed associations and cattle associations from both the U.S. and Canada to discuss substances prohibited in animal feed. Loopholes in the mad cow disease regulations allow cow parts to be fed back to cows in animal feed products, thereby potentially spreading the disease among cows. This meeting is one of several recently held by OIRA on mad cow-related topics. The agency also recently met with industry over substances prohibited in human food products as well as on the prohibition of specified-risk materials.

read in full

Paralysis by Analysis: Snowmobiles in Yellowstone

Aug 26, 2005 by Guest Blogger

A New York Times op-ed examines the Bush administration's decision to authorize a fourth study of the environmental impact of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park, despite the wealth of scientific information already available:

read in full

OIRA meeting with Rendering, Feed Industry

Aug 25, 2005 by Guest Blogger

OIRA met on Aug. 23 to discuss substances prohibited in human food with rendering industry representatives including the National Renderers Association, Valley Proteins, Kaluzny Bros. and Griffin Industries, Inc. Rendering is "the process of transforming waste from the meat industry into useable products for animal feeds and technical use," according to the NRA website. OIRA met over the same rule on Aug. 24 with the American Feed Industry Association.

read in full

OIRA Meeting on EPA Rules

Aug 24, 2005 by Guest Blogger

On Aug 2, OIRA, EPA and SBA met with the Natural Resources Defense Council over EPS's Pretreatment Streamlining Rule.
OIRA and EPA met with the Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance (HSIA) on July 27 to discuss dry cleaners residual risk.

read in full

OIRA Meeting on Mad Cow Disease

Aug 24, 2005 by Guest Blogger

OIRA met with the North American National Casing Association on July 12 over the prohibition of specified-risk material for human food and the requirements for disposition of non-ambulatory cattle. Specified-risk material is the part of the cow most likely to transmit the mad cow disease prion. Currently regulation prohibits the use of specified-risk material in meat products. However, several loopholes to the regulation exist. Non-ambulatory cattle are essentially cattle that appear to be ill (i.e. they can't walk).

read in full

Counting the Cost of Bush Reg "Reforms"

Aug 23, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Interesting scholarly article reviewing the Bush administration's distortions of the regulatory process, particularly the "reforms" championed by OIRA head John Graham: This article is a review of the regulatory process reforms championed by John Graham's OIRA. Rather than attempting to view them as pro-regulation or antiregulation, I believe it is more useful to ask to whom these various regulatory reforms give power in the regulatory process and whether or not they raise the cost of issuing a regulation. This paper will show that many of these reforms empower the President

read in full

OIRA meets over Black Carp Rule

Aug 23, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Representatives from OIRA and Fish and Wildlife Services met with interested parties on July 7 to discuss a proposed rulemaking to add black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) to the list of injurious wildlife under the Lacey Act.

read in full

OIRA Meetings with Industry, Senate

Aug 23, 2005 by Guest Blogger

On Tuesday August 9, Microsoft lobbyists met with OIRA, Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security administrators to discuss labor certification for permanent employment of aliens in the U.S.
Also on August 9, pesticide manufacturers Bayer CropScience and Crop Life America met with EPA and OIRA to discuss protections for test subjects in human research.

read in full