Political 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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GAO Report Examines Effect of White House Memo Halting Regulations

Fifteen rules that were scheduled to go into effect at the beginning of the Bush administration but were delayed by a White House memo have still not gone into effect, according to a recent report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) -- the investigative arm of Congress.

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Bush Administration Weakens Medical Privacy Rules

In a move hailed by the health care industry, the Bush administration announced on March 27 that it would roll back medical privacy standards put in place at the end of the Clinton administration.

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Safeguards Moving Forward

Upon taking office, the Bush administration reconsidered a host of Clinton-era health, safety and environmental protections. Many were weakened or revoked, but some were ultimately allowed to stand, including standards for asenic in drinking water, lead reporting, and black lung claims. OMB Watch provides a list of safeguards moving forward.

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Safeguards in Limbo

The Bush administration is in the process of weakening or abandoning a number of protections, including forest protection, clean air and water standards, and wetlands protections. OMB Watch provides a list of safeguards in limbo. Clean Air Protections for Aging Power Plants. EPA issued a proposed rule on Nov. 22, 2002, that would expand the definition of “routine maintenance” -- which is exempt from NSR -- allowing older facilities to make more extensive upgrades without having to install new anti-pollution equipment required of a “new source.”

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Bush Administration to Ease Environmental Laws for Coal Powered Plants

The Bush administration plans to ease off of older coal-fired power plants that have violated clean air standards in favor of "incentives for voluntary reductions in toxic emissions," according to this article in the Washington Post.

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Graham Grilled on Possible Regulatory Roll Backs

Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) grilled John Graham, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), on whether he is seeking to roll back regulation at the request of affected industry at a March 12 hearing in the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs.

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Thompson/Levin Regulatory 'Reform' Bill Reported to Floor

The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee voted to send comprehensive regulatory "reform" legislation (S. 746), sponsored by Sens. Fred Thompson (R-TN) and Carl Levin (D-MI), to the floor over the objections of most committee Democrats. The committee did not, however, have time to take up the regulatory accounting bill (S. 59) -- which requires OMB to conduct a cumulative cost-benefit analysis -- as scheduled and will do so at a later date. Besides Levin, Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) was the only Democrat to vote to report the bill.

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Congressional Quarterly Special Report on White House Regulatory Review

Subscribers to the OMB Watcher can now download a FREE copy of this week's CQ Weekly special report on John Graham and the regulatory review agenda of OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), which has the power to reject or alter agency efforts to protect public health, safety and the environment. The package of stories and sidebars contains an overview on OIRA, plus a comprehensive analysis of the 18 "return letters" that OIRA has issued to various agencies since John Graham was confirmed as administrator, and an explanatory box on the regulatory tools Graham uses.

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John Graham Advises EPA to Improve Information Policies

John Graham, administrator of OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, today released a “prompt letter” to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) urging the agency to take three steps to improve public access to its information. Graham’s top priority is to have EPA establish an identification number for each facility reporting information to the agency.

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Graham Pushes Regulatory Priorities in President's Budget

As administrator of the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) -- which has authority to review and possibly reject or amend agency regulatory proposals -- John Graham is pressing agencies to adopt particular analytical methods to assess regulatory costs and benefits that would rig the result and undoubtedly lead to less protective health, safety, and environmental standards.

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