Citizen Health & Safety

Funding Shortfalls Plague Superfund

Oct 22, 2007 by Matthew Madia

A subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held a hearing last week on the current state of Superfund, the federal government's toxic waste clean-up program.

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Senate Amendment Would Threaten Federal Programs; Tell Your Senator to Vote "No."

Oct 22, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) has introduced an amendment to the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations bill (H.R. 3043) that would threaten the budgets of important federal programs. The amendment would tie a program's budget to the White House Office of Management and Budget's Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) — a flawed measure of a program's effectiveness and efficiency. Allard's amendment would make PART ratings a trigger for budget cuts. If a program is rated "ineffective" by OMB assessors, the budget of that program would be automatically cut by 10 percent.

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NOAA Efforts to Protect Marine Species Thwarted by White House

Oct 17, 2007 by Matthew Madia

For months, the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs has been blocking the finalization of a rule that would enhance protections for the North Atlantic right whale. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is pursuing the rulemaking because the right whale is one of the most critically endangered marine species in the world. Under Executive Order 12866, Regulatory Planning and Review, agencies are required to submit significant rules to the White House in order to give OIRA an opportunity to review and edit the rule.

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CSS Supports House Effort to Stop Bush's Regulatory Changes

On behalf of Citizens for Sensible Safeguards, OMB Watch Director of Regulatory Policy Rick Melberth wrote to Congressmen Brad Miller (D-NC) and Linda Sanchez (D-CA) in support of their efforts to curb President Bush's recent attempts to further manipulate and control the regulatory process. Find out more by downloading the letter.

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EPA's Lax Enforcement Fouls Water Too

Oct 11, 2007 by Matthew Madia

As Reg•Watch blogged this morning, the Environmental Protection Agency is all talk when it comes to enforcement of environmental regulations. A new report from U.S. PIRG titled Troubled Waters highlights the deficiencies in EPA's enforcement of Clean Water Act regulations. Facilities that want to discharge pollutants into navigable waterways must first receive a permit from EPA. EPA uses the permit system to limit discharges and to monitor the polluting activity of the facilities.

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Administration Contradicts Itself on Environmental Enforcement

Oct 11, 2007 by Matthew Madia

The Bush administration has caught some flack recently for its poor record of enforcing environmental regulations and for the timidity with which it pursues prosecution of the nation's worst polluters. A Sept. 30 Washington Post article reported, "The number of environmental prosecutions plummeted from 919 in 2001 to 584 last year."

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Latest Watcher

Oct 11, 2007 by Matthew Madia

Be sure to check out the latest issue of our biweekly newsletter, The Watcher. Regulatory policy articles this time: Bush Administration Delays Import Safety Changes While Congress Debates Solutions States Sue Bush Administration over New Children's Health Insurance Requirements

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EPA Cut Corners in TRI Rule

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) came under tough scrutiny at an Oct. 4 hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials for reducing the reporting standards of the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) in December 2006.

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House Energy and Commerce Committee Proposes Climate Change Legislation Framework

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality issued the first in a series of white papers that will outline designs for complicated climate change legislation and regulation. The first white paper, released Oct. 3, outlines a design for a cap-and-trade program covering major greenhouse gases (GHG) that would form the cornerstone of comprehensive federal climate change legislation.

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States Sue Bush Administration over New Children's Health Insurance Requirements

Several states have sued the Bush administration over new policies governing the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The suits follow broad opposition from state public health experts and congressional Democrats and Republicans who urged the administration to abandon the new policies. The suits also come as Congress attempts to reauthorize SCHIP after a presidential veto.

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