Robert Shull, Regulatory Policy Director
Long before he came to Washington, Graham was well known as an industry-funded researcher who was actively involved in producing elaborate theories to justify weakening the government's ability to protect the public. Defenders of his nomination argued that Graham would buck that trend and place the public interest over corporate special interests in his new role. Five years later, we now know just how wrong they were.

On Jan. 23 Thomas Sullivan, chief counsel for advocacy with The Small Business Administration (SBA), contacted OMB Watch in response to "Is Industry Pulling EPA's Strings?", an article recently published in The Watcher that describes a troubling pattern of close cooperation and extensive communication between the SBA and the Environmental Protection Agency around reducing chemical reporting under the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), in order cut down on governmental paperwork for companies. Sullivan asked that OMB Watch clarify that the 1997 investigation by SBA's Inspector General into possible unethical actions around the TRI by SBA lawyer Kevin Bromberg, who has previously advocated for an industry coalition on TRI, found no evidence of inappropriate action. During his conversation with OMB Watch, Sullivan acknowledged that all of the facts cited in the article about recent interactions between EPA and SBA are correct. The article has been updated to reflect SBA's request.

New from OMB Watch: The Graham Files, a compilation of OMB Watch's analysis and news reports from John Graham's tenure as administrator of OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.