WASHINGTON, Dec. 8, 2010—In a new report released today, OMB Watch examines the regulatory enforcement actions of the Obama administration at its midterm point. The report, The Obama Approach to Public Protection: Enforcement, illustrates that executive branch agencies under Obama have stepped up enforcement of a number of important labor, consumer protection, and environmental laws and regulations. The report is the second in a series of three publications on the Obama administration's approach to public protections and the federal regulatory process.

A working paper by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling has ignited a controversy about the role of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in controlling information about the spill. The working paper alleges that, soon after the April 20 explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon rig, OMB blocked plans to disclose the government's worst-case models of the spill. The administration's response to the allegations leaves several key questions without clear answers, which can only be resolved by disclosing the drafts and feedback through which these critical documents were developed.