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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Greenhouse Gases are Peachy Keen, 40 Senators Say

Jan 22, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Yesterday, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and a whopping 39 co-sponsors introduced a resolution that would disapprove the Environmental Protection Agency’s endangerment finding for greenhouse gas emissions.

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The Obama Administration and Public Protections: A First-Year Regulatory Assessment

OMB Watch invites you to this webcast event.

Date and time: Thursday, Feb. 4 at 3 p.m. Eastern Time

Location: 2040 S St., NW, Washington, DC 20009 and live on the web!

Panelists: Michael Fitzpatrick, White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (invited); Pam Gilbert, Cuneo Gilbert & LaDuca; Peg Seminario, AFL-CIO; Wesley Warren, Natural Resources Defense Council. Moderated by Gary Bass, OMB Watch.

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Reforming Regulatory Policy in the Obama Administration

OMB Watch continues to work with the Obama administration to develop and implement reforms that better enable federal agencies to protect public health, safety, and the environment through regulation. Below is a list of recommendations and comments OMB Watch has submitted to the administration thus far.

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Time’s about up for OIRA on Coal Ash Rule

Jan 14, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Today, Jan. 14, marks day 90 of the White House’s review of EPA’s proposed coal ash regulation. As I blogged on Monday, the rule has been discussed at dozens of meetings featuring the EPA, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), and various stakeholders. My updated count has industry stakeholders at 22 meetings and environmental stakeholders at four.

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Lobbying and Ethics Reforms Need to be Enforced

Jan 14, 2010 by Amanda Adams*

On September 14, 2007, President Bush signed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, a package of lobbying and ethics reforms. However, over two years later, there remains very little enforcement of such rules. According to the Senate's website, there have been a total of 8,281 cases of potential violations of the Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA). Meanwhile, there has been no enforcement on any of the potential LDA violations since 2005, except to send out letters to potential violators.

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Food Safety Agenda Suffers without USDA Appointee

Jan 12, 2010 by Matthew Madia

President Obama still has not nominated an undersecretary for food safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as Congress Daily reports today. Almost a year into his administration, the Food Safety Inspection Service – the federal agency in charge of making sure meat, poultry, and eggs are safe and labeled properly – is still without a leader.

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Hundreds of Rules May Be Void after Agencies Miss Procedural Step

Regulatory agencies are routinely violating federal law by not submitting final regulations to Congress, according to a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report. Any rule agencies have not submitted to Congress could be susceptible to a lawsuit.

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Improving Implementation of the Paperwork Reduction Act

On Oct. 27, 2009, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) opened a public comment process on ways to improve implementation of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA). The PRA covers a range of information resource management issues and topics, although it is best known for creating OIRA and establishing a paperwork clearance procedure. The law was passed in 1980 and last reauthorized in 1995, well before current technological capabilities that allow for greater public participation and streamlined information collection and reporting.

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OIRA Meetings Stir Controversy over Coal Ash Regulation

Jan 11, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Industry representatives have repeatedly visited the White House to discuss pending regulation of coal ash, raising suspicions that industry may be influencing the rule. In December, amid these meetings, EPA announced it was backing away from its earlier pledge to propose coal ash regulations by the end of 2009.

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EPA Takes Aim at Past Air Pollution Screw Ups

Jan 7, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a revision to the national air quality standard for ozone, a.k.a. smog. EPA is proposing to tighten the primary standard to a level somewhere between 0.060 and 0.070 ppm (parts per million), down from the current standard of 0.075 ppm set in 2008. Under the Clean Air Act, EPA must set the primary standard at a level protective of public health.

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