The House recently approved two of five exemptions from environmental laws sought by the Pentagon while the Senate approved just one. As OMB Watch previously reported, the Pentagon -- claiming that military readiness has been adversely impacted -- pushed for military exemptions from the Endangered Species Act (ESA); the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA); the Clean Air Act (CAA); the Comprehensive Environmental Restoration, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA); and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

May 2003 Update Federal agencies released updated regulatory agendas on Tuesday, May 27, which describe rulemakings under review, anticipated actions, and progress toward completing new standards. These agendas -- which are updated every spring and fall -- provide an important window into the administration's regulatory priorities and objectives, even though they are frequently inaccurate in their predictions. In January, OMB Watch examined the agendas of three agencies -- the Environmental Protection Agency, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration -- to see what has changed during the Bush administration. Here, we update that data and add new information about the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The BMW Manufacturing Corporation has submitted a petition to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) compliance data for the company's Spartanburg, South Carolina plant. Currently, EPA lists the BMW facility as being in Significant Non-Compliance (SNC) with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). The information is listed online in EPA's Enforcement Compliance History Online (ECHO) database and Sector Facility Indexing Project (SFIP) database.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has denied the two earliest data quality requests, stating the information did not fall under the scope of the Information Quality Guidelines. An individual with the Ohio EPA submitted both requests. The first request called for corrections in the format of online documents. The second letter asked for technical clarifications of a document related to surface coatings of plastic parts.