OIRA Meetings with Industry, Senate

  • On Tuesday August 9, Microsoft lobbyists met with OIRA, Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security administrators to discuss labor certification for permanent employment of aliens in the U.S.
  • Also on August 9, pesticide manufacturers Bayer CropScience and Crop Life America met with EPA and OIRA to discuss protections for test subjects in human research.

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FBO Denied Grant Because Lack of Safeguards

The Bush administration yesterday suspended a federal grant to the Silver Ring Thing abstinence program, saying it appears to use tax money for religious activities. Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services ordered the group to submit a "corrective action plan" if it hopes to receive an expected $75,000 grant this year. In a letter to the program director, Harry Wilson, associate commissioner of the Family and Youth Services Bureau, concluded that the project funded with federal dollars "includes both secular and religious components that are not adequately safeguarded."

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Op-Ed Argues for More Aggressive FEC Commissioners

Op-Ed from TomPaine.com: "Nominees for important government posts will be announced in a matter of days, and the radical suggestion of Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Russ Feingold, D-Wis., is this: Appoint capable individuals inclined to carry out their legally mandated duties." In the article, James Sample is arguing that the current FEC commissioners is too "hands-off" and that the Commission should bring in people that are going to be more aggressive in their oversight of campaign finance law. Check out the article

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Overtime: Hazardous to Your Health

BNA's subscription-only Daily Report for Executives got a sneak peek at the September issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, which will publish a report addressing the health and safety consequences of working overtime. According to BNA, the study "found that working in jobs with schedules that routinely involved overtime work or extended hours increased the risk of a job-related injury or illness." Moreover, "[w]orking overtime was associated with a 61 percent higher injury hazard rate when compared with jobs that did not involve overtime."

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Watcher: August 23, 2005

Federal Budget
  • Congressional Budget Office Projections: No Change in Bleak, Long-Term Fiscal Outlook
  • Economy and Jobs Watch: Continuing Bad News for Americans

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Latest Watcher

Be sure to check out the latest issue of our biweekly newsletter, The Watcher. Reg policy articles this time: States Provide Both Opportunities and Pitfalls for Progressive Regulation Legislative Update: Federalism Bills

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States Present Opportunities and Pitfalls for Progressive Regulation

Although many progressives have begun to focus resources on winning battles in the states, the regulatory record at the state level is characterized by both opportunities and potential pitfalls. Successes at the State Level Under the Bush administration, many important federal regulations have been stalled, weakened or even rolled back. In such cases, states have often been forced to take matters into their own hands, developing their own regulations that are more stringent than the national standards.

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Economy and Jobs Watch: Continuing Bad News for Americans

Last month's economic news has been far from encouraging for most Americans, with a continuation of an uneven and unpredictable job market, rising consumer prices, and declining earnings. Yet, despite the grim realities faced by most working families in the U.S. the recovery period has been very good to business, with corporate profits up over 15 percent since it began. A survey of indicators shows the Bush administration's economic policies, specifically how they value profits for corporations over the bottom line for average Americans, have further eroded the country's economic health.

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Industry Misuses Data Quality Act to Challenge EPA Choices

Two industry groups recently filed challenges, under the Data Quality Act, against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) methodological choices. Both challenges focus on evaluations of human health risks from specific chemicals. The petitions specifically question documents that address emissions of Metam Sodium, a pesticide, and Dioxin/Furan, used to produce cement. The petitions challenge EPA procedures, however, which are policy decisions made within the agency -- and not data -- and as such lie outside the scope of the Data Quality Act (DQA).

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Minnesota Considers 'Biomonitoring' to Protect Public Health

Minnesota lawmakers are considering biomonitoring legislation that would test Minnesota citizens to determine their exposure levels to a variety of toxic chemicals. The proposed law seeks to better gauge health risks currently posed by such chemicals, as the first step toward controlling and reducing those risks.

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