Happy belated birthday to the Clean Air Act which turned 40 on Tuesday, Sept. 14. In honor of the occasion, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson gave a speech touting the many accomplishments of the act. Among them, health and life-saving benefits of gigantic proportions. EPA says that, in the act’s first 20 years alone, clean air programs prevented 205,000 premature deaths and 18 million respiratory illnesses among children.

Eighty-five food recalls have sickened at least 1,850 people since July 30, 2009, the day the House passed a food safety reform bill that has yet to be taken up by the Senate, a new study shows.

Yesterday, President Obama recess appointed Elisabeth Hagen to serve as the USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety. Hagen was nominated by Obama in January 2010, but has had difficulty getting the Senate’s attention.

Hagen had been the chief medical officer at the USDA. Now, as undersecretary, she will head the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the regulator of meat and poultry products.

For someone who’s so concerned about federal regulation, John Boehner doesn’t seem to know very much about it.

In the latest issue of OMB Watch’s biweekly e-newsletter The Watcher, we have a story about public support for regulation juxtaposed against the inside-the-beltway push back against it. Business representatives and Republicans in Congress are leading the charge, maligning regulation and linking it to economic distress.