The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) received a request Jan. 15 under the Data Quality Act challenging six studies that FAA uses to justify its Age 60 rule; this rule does not allow service pilots to fly after the age of 60. The 61-page challenge asserts that the studies are false and misleading in the information and statistics they disseminate due to flawed methodologies and biased investigations. Several pilots and the Israeli Association of General Aviation filed comments in support of the challenge. FAA

Rep. Doug Ose (R-CA) recently introduced legislation (H.R. 2432) that would test regulatory budgeting at five agencies, including EPA and the departments of Labor and Transportation. Under these “pilot projects,” the participating agencies -- including two to be designated by OMB -- must present the “varying levels of costs and benefits to the public that would result from different budgeted amounts” for at least one of their “major regulatory programs.” OMB is to include these regulatory budgets in the president’s budget submission to Congress for fiscal year 2007.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently released draft voluntary guidelines for the prevention of repetitive stress injuries (the most pressing health and safety issue confronting the workplace today) at poultry processing plants.

In a Washington Post op-ed on June 1, Robert Hahn and Scott Wallsten of the American Enterprise Institute pose a fantastic scenario: There are two simultaneous fires, one at a nursing home and one at a nursery. The problem is that the fire chief has only one pump, and must choose whether to save 11 seniors or 10 toddlers. Obviously, the chief should choose the toddlers, they write.