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...

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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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When sunsets aren't pretty

Apr 30, 2005 by Guest Blogger

Rolling Stone featured an in-depth examination of the sunset commission proposal that was recently promoted in the White House budget submission and reportedly will soon be the subject of a legislative proposal. Get the Rolling Stone story here or here.

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Testimony on Hit List Before the House Small Business Committee

Download testimony of Robert Shull before the House Small Business Committee's Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform and Oversight, concerning the OMB anti-regulatory hit list.

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Bush's Climate Change Politics Program

Apr 25, 2005 by Guest Blogger

It's no secret that the White House has been hostile to policy proposals addressing the problem of climate change, but in a letter to Sen. John McCain and John Kerry, GAO stated it found the program established by the Bush administration to study climate change has missed important deadlines and has failed to address how climate change will impact the environment and human health, information that is critical for the development of sound policy.

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OIRA Meets with Industry Over Safe Drinking-Water Rules

Apr 20, 2005 by Guest Blogger

OIRA met with representatives from the American Water Works Association on April 14 regarding three safe drinking-water rules: the Groundwater Rule, the Long-Term Surface Treatment Rule, Phase 2 and the Disinfection Byproducts Rule Stage 2. All three rules were listed in EPA's 2004 Regulatory Plan as high priorities for the agency. According to the agency:

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OIRA Meets with Environmental Group Over Regional Haze

Apr 20, 2005 by Guest Blogger

OIRA met with representatives from Environmental Defense on April 13 regarding the regional haze rule. Under a consent agreement with Environmental Defense, EPA was required to promulgate a rule providing guidance for reducing emissions that affect visibility in national parks by April 15. The rule would cut emissions from 25 source categories, including power plants. EPA asked for a two-month extension, which Environmental Defense granted.

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House Considers Anti-Regulatory Hit List

The White House's anti-regulatory hit list took center stage in a House committee hearing, during which GOP members and White House regulatory czar John Graham praised the hit list as a gift to the manufacturing sector while Democratic members criticized the entire project as yet another example of a corporate special interest takeover of government.

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Corporate-Conservative Alliance Plots Attack on Safeguards

From many small and supposedly disconnected proposals, a larger pattern is emerging: corporate special interests and conservative lawmakers are conspiring to mount a comprehensive assault on regulatory protections, on a scale equivalent to the broad-based attacks of the Contract With America.

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OIRA Meeting Round-Up

Apr 18, 2005 by Guest Blogger

OIRA has been keeping busy lately, meeting with representatives of Congress and industry over rulemakings. Here's a round-up of recent meetings:

On April 4, OIRA met again with congressional staff over the designation of special control for condoms. This time OIRA met with staff of Senator Durbin (D-IL) and three minority staff members from the House Government Reform Committee.
OIRA met with the US Chamber of Commerce and Lockheed Martin on April 7 over the Safety Act, which establishes limited liability for makers of anti-terrorist technologies.

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Regulatory Policy Developments: 1998

Links take you to pages from our old website Two Regulatory ‘Reform' Provisions Enacted (12/23/98) The last-minute budget deal reached between the Clinton Administration and the congressional majority includes two broad, problematic regulatory "reform" provisions that apply to the operations of all federal agencies. Regulatory Reformers Make Few Gains in 105th Congress (12/23/98)

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Regulatory Policy Developments: 1997

Links will take you to pages from our old website. Index: Oppose the Regulatory Improvement Act of 1997 (S. 981) Regulatory Notebook (12/19/97) Updates on "takings" legislation, OSHA overhaul, and unfunded mandates reform. EPA Forms Advisory Panel for Endocrine Disruptor Screening Process (11/97)

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