Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee blasted the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week for urging drug companies to withhold information on the efficacy of antidepressants used on children. The controversy comes just as patient advocacy groups, the American Medical Association, and a dozen medical journal editors are calling on pharmaceutical companies to register their clinical trials in order to meet increasing public demand for information on the effectiveness and safety of drugs. Lack of Information on Clinical Trials Leads to Use of Ineffective Drugs

OMB Watch's new report, The Bush Regulatory Record: A Pattern of Failure, analyzes the last year of federal regulatory activity for four key agencies charged with serving the public interest and places its findings in a broader four-year context. The agencies studied are the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulations have come under scrutiny lately as the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court have ruled on lawsuits regarding electioneering communications. These actions have implications for nonprofits. On Sept. 18, District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly struck down more than a dozen of the FEC's current rules on political fundraising, including rules regulating electioneering communications of 501(c)(3) groups.

The Bush campaign lost the first round of a legal bid to force the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to act on a complaint it filed against political committees opposing his re-election, but attorneys for the campaign promised to pursue the issue. Meanwhile, the House sponsors of campaign finance reform legislation filed suit against the FEC seeking stricter rules regulating political committees.