Citizen Health & Safety

Industry-Backed Lobbyists Use YouTube to Attack Climate Change

Aug 8, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Lobbyists are trying some new media tactics to sway public opinion about climate change. In the latest effort, a video released on the video-sharing site YouTube mocks Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. The short, entitled "Al Gore's Penguin Army," is a vapid animation that turns Gore into a fat penguin who bores audiences to death and hypnotizes them into thinking climate change must be stopped.

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Sunset Legislation Delayed Until September

In a sign that public pressure from concerned citizens works, the two sunset commission bills in the House scheduled for floor votes the week before August recess were both delayed until September.

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Pro-Cost-Benefit but Anti-Dudley

Aug 7, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Be sure to check out Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal on the Dudley nomination. DeLong supports the role of cost-benefit analysis in regulatory decisionmaking, but he is nonetheless not a kindred spirit of Dudley: I had always thought that the benefit-cost ratio from flame-retardant pajamas was high. The fact that Susan Dudley sees this as an example of government overreach.... As someone who believes in getting the benefit-cost analysis right, I find this... disturbing.

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A Look at Risk Assessment

Aug 5, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Click here for Rachel's Precaution Reporter's reprint of a Nature magazine article covering the White House's Proposed Risk Assessment Bulletin.

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Testimony on H.R. 682, Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act

Download testimony of J. Robert Shull, Director of Regulatory Policy. Click here to watch the hearing. Click here for OMB Watch response to committee follow-up questions, with these attachments: Regulation & Competitiveness Ackerman, "Unbearable Lightness of Regulatory Costs" The Going-Out-of-Business Myth Discussion of misleading Crain/Hopkins study

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White House Appoints Industry-Backed Extremist as Regulatory Czar

Statement of J. Robert Shull, Director of Regulatory Policy
Corporate special interests are about to have the best friend they could have wished for installed in the White House office that oversees regulatory policy. The White House announced today its intention to nominate Susan Dudley, an anti-regulatory extremist from the industry-funded Mercatus Center, to an obscure but powerful office, where she would have the power to gut the federal government's very ability to protect the public.

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They're Home for August... Don't Give Them a Break!

Jul 29, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Members of Congress are flocking home for the August recess. This is their prime time for checking in with you, raising money from you, and trying to keep your votes.

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It's Working: Sunset Bills Delayed (For Now)

The two sunset commission bills that were racing toward a floor vote in the House this week have both been delayed. All signs were that they would be voted on this week, but they have both been delayed until September.

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