Yesterday, President Bush made comments in the Rose Garden concerning greenhouse gases and global warming. In his speech, one may have expected the President to announce a new landscaping project turning the Rose Garden into the Orchid Garden due to quickly rising global temperatures. Instead, Bush announced a new Executive Order which requires collaboration among EPA, the Departments of Energy, Transportation and Agriculture, OMB, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality in pursuing new regulations on greenhouse gas emissions.

By now, we all know President Bush's recent changes to the regulatory process will further bottleneck federal regulatory policy in an attempt to help regulated industries escape new obligations. Specifically, changes regarding agency guidance documents will force those interpretive memos (often only suggestions) through a burdensome and unnecessary White House review process.

Both The New York Times' and The Washington Post's editorial boards have weighed in on the Senate's Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) reauthorization. The Times brings us back to the crux of the issue: FDA's power to require the drug industry to pay for drug approvals. While these so-called user fees are an significant source of revenue for FDA, The Times articulates the concerns of many who are following the issue:

Yesterday, Reg•Watch blogged about the various amendments to the Senate PDUFA reauthorization bill. An additional provision has become the subject of political wrangling. Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) support a provision which would allow importation of drugs from Canada and the European Union. Yesterday, OMB released a statement indicating the president would likely veto PDUFA reauthorization if it included such a provision.