Congress should not use reauthorization of the Paperwork Reduction Act as an occasion to keep the public in the dark and threaten existing regulations that protect health and safety, and the environment, OMB Watch will tell Congress today. Rather it should be an occasion to promote information technologies that reduce costs to government, make compliance easier for industry, and improve transparency. "Industry groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have been working in coalitions led by the lobbying firm Valis Associates," OMB Watch's regulatory policy director Robert Shull will testify today before the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs of the House Government Reform Committee. "The corporate lobbying coalition has been working in backroom meetings with the White House to plot ways to use PRA reauthorization as a vehicle to promote ideas that would benefit corporate special interests at the expense of the public interest." More info: testimony, press release