Political Interference

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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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Details on OMB's Edits of CDC's Climate Change Testimony

Oct 24, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Yesterday, Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was supposed to testify in front of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee about the threat global warming poses to public health. Instead, Gerberding spoke in detail of preparedness and health tracking but addressed public health impacts only cursorily.

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White House Has Its Hands on EPA Endocrine Disruptor Program

Oct 23, 2007 by Matthew Madia

In 1996, Congress passed legislation mandating EPA assess the health impacts of endocrine disruptors — a class of chemicals which affect the way the body regulates mood, growth and development. Until this summer, EPA had made no progress in evaluating the chemicals impacts.

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Bush Administration Tries to Reverse Old-Growth Forest Protection Plan

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is trying to dismantle a 1994 landmark management plan that balances logging, endangered species and old-growth forest protections. BLM wants to revise the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) to allow logging on nearly one million acres of old-growth forest area included in the plan that protect habitats for species such as the northern spotted owl, salmon and other old-growth-dependent species. The proposed revisions ignore scientific recommendations, and the process appears to have been manipulated by Bush administration officials in Washington.

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Senate Amendment Would Threaten Federal Programs; Tell Your Senator to Vote "No."

Oct 22, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) has introduced an amendment to the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill (H.R. 3043) that would threaten the budgets of important federal programs. The amendment would tie a program's budget to the White House Office of Management and Budget's Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) — a flawed measure of a program's effectiveness and efficiency. Allard's amendment would make PART ratings a trigger for budget cuts. If a program is rated "ineffective" by OMB assessors, the budget of that program would be automatically cut by 10 percent.

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NOAA Efforts to Protect Marine Species Thwarted by White House

Oct 17, 2007 by Matthew Madia

For months, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs has been blocking the finalization of a rule that would enhance protections for the North Atlantic right whale. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is pursuing the rulemaking because the right whale is one of the most critically endangered marine species in the world. Under Executive Order 12866, Regulatory Planning and Review, agencies are required to submit significant rules to the White House in order to give OIRA an opportunity to review and edit the rule.

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CSS Supports House Effort to Stop Bush's Regulatory Changes

On behalf of Citizens for Sensible Safeguards, OMB Watch Director of Regulatory Policy Rick Melberth wrote to Congressmen Brad Miller (D-NC) and Linda Sanchez (D-CA) in support of their efforts to curb President Bush's recent attempts to further manipulate and control the regulatory process. Find out more by downloading the letter.

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OSHA's Position on Diacetyl Is Emblematic of Bush Preference for Voluntary Standards

Oct 15, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Edwin Foulke, Administrator of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, says the agency will not pursue an emergency rulemaking for diacetyl but will instead choose to let industry police itself, according to Inside OSHA (subscription). Workers exposed to diacetyl, a chemical used to give microwave popcorn its buttery flavor, are at risk for a severe and sometimes fatal lung disease called bronchiolitis obliterans.

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EPA Cut Corners in TRI Rule

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came under tough scrutiny at an Oct. 4 hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials for reducing the reporting standards of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) in December 2006.

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President Signs PDUFA Renewal/FDA Reform Bill

Sep 27, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Today, President Bush signed into law H.R. 3580, the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007. The law reauthorizes the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, an important source of funding for FDA, just in time to avoid agency layoffs. The law should also improve the ability of the agency to assure the safety of prescription drugs after they have been approved for the market.

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Latest Watcher

Sep 26, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Be sure to check out the latest issue of our biweekly newsletter, The Watcher. Regulatory policy articles this time: Congress Hears Pleas for Expanded Authority and Resources at CPSC New White House Guidelines Fit into Broad Attack on Federal Protections Senate Reviews Agencies' Attempts to Preempt Congress and the States

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Resources & Research

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

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A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

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Blowing Smoke: Chemical Companies Say “Trust Us,” But Environmental and Workplace Safety Violations Belie Their Rhetoric

Large chemical companies a...

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Gasping for Support: Implementation of Tougher Air Quality Standards Will Require New Funds for State Agencies

New scientific research shows that the current levels of...

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