Two Decades of Progressive Policy for the Public Good

Twenty Years of Progress – and Counting

For two decades, the Center for Progressive Reform has worked to ensure our government can fulfill its mission to protect and support people and our planet. Since 2002, we’ve worked to harness the power of law and policy to strengthen our nation’s ability to protect health and safety, advance equity and justice, ensure a sustainable planet, and make our government more inclusive and responsive. We’ve built an extraordinary legacy of progress – and we’ll continue this vital work in the decades to come.

Take a Deeper Look at our Legacy

Take a look at some of our greatest hits over the last 20 years.

2002

Challenging conservative efforts to sweep aside regulation

In the George W. Bush era, progressive activists sought to challenge the growing conservative movement to undo government regulations that protect workers, consumers, the public, and the planet. To counter this movement and reframe the debate around the protective role government plays when the market fails, a small group of legal scholars came together to found what was then called the Center for Progressive Regulation.

2003

Building opposition to assaults on public protections

In Priceless, Member Scholars Frank Ackerman and Lisa Heinzerling issued the first comprehensive rebuttal of an obscure federal mandate known as cost-benefit analysis. Their book helped build political opposition to harmful regulatory provisions, such as the “senior death discount,” which sought to devalue environmental protections by assigning lower benefits to people over age 70.

2005

Setting the agenda for public health and environmental regulatory policy

In A New Progressive Agenda for Public Health and the Environment, Member Scholars Rena Steinzor and Christopher Schroeder showed how federal regulatory policy was increasingly putting corporate interests ahead of the public interest and offered concrete solutions to reverse the alarming trend. Fifteen years later, the book remains the Center’s defining organizational statement.

2005

Urging stronger regulatory safeguards from natural disasters

In the devastating wake of Hurricane Katrina, a coalition of Member Scholars published An Unnatural Disaster, and Rob Verchick testified twice on the issue before Congress. In the landmark report and testimony, Verchick and others show how the massive natural disaster led to a massive — but preventable — unnatural disaster, with especially adverse effects on low-wealth people of color.

2006

Rescuing science from political manipulation

Member Scholars Wendy Wagner and Rena Steinzor published Rescuing Science from Politics to shine a light on the nefarious practice of industry manipulation of regulatory science for political gain. Nearly two decades later, their recommendations to improve governance — such as disclosing industry ties to scientific research and protecting whistleblowers — are as important as ever.

2008

Pressing for executive authority for climate action and environmental justice

In conjunction with the 2008 presidential election, the Center issued a major report urging President Obama to issue seven key executive orders in his first 100 days in office to help kickstart his agenda on protecting public health, safety, and the environment. As president, Obama took several actions consistent with the report’s recommendations.

2011

Exposing corporate efforts to weaken protective regulations

The Center’s blockbuster investigative report — Behind Closed Doors at the White House— found that lobbyists for the oil, gas, chemical, and other industries have outsize access to a backdoor office at the White House known as the Office on Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). The report backed up allegations of undue corporate influence in the rulemaking process with empirical data and cemented the Center’s reputation as a leading expert on OIRA interference.

2014

Protecting workers’ health and safety

The Center published a wide-ranging manual to help workers rights’ advocates press for change at the state and local levels, bypassing stalled efforts at the federal level to accomplish meaningful change. The report — Winning Safer Workplaces — was a groundbreaking legal toolkit for workers’ health and safety at the state level and took an important first step toward improving health and safety in the workplace.

2016

Opposing Trump’s assault on protective regulations

The Center was able to respond quickly, when, early in his presidency, Donald Trump and his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, launched a full-fledged attack on bedrock laws, endangering our health, our jobs, our financial security, and our lives. The Center led the public interest community’s response to many of the Trump administration’s anti-regulatory actions, and Member Scholars and staff explained the significance of these actions in numerous media interviews.

2018

Educating the public about climate change and resilience

In his Connect the Dots podcast, Board President Rob Verhick interviews Member Scholars and outside experts on a variety of environmental issues. Now in its seventh season, the podcast has diversified the Center’s communications portfolio, expanded the reach of its messaging, and raised awareness of climate issues relating to climate and energy justice. It also offers new audiences in the ever-growing digital media space concrete solutions to the climate crisis and a clear pathway to a viable, sustainable future.

2020

Advancing federal and state solutions to the climate crisis

2022

Harnessing the power of law and policy for the public good

Since its founding, the Center has become the voice for progressive regulation — and its efforts have a track record of success, including the defeat of legislation that would have prevented federal agencies from protecting Americans from various harms. Now entering its third decade, the Center is focused on protecting overburdened and underserved communities from the harms of climate change through progressive regulation and legislation.

“The Center has marshaled its resources to advocate for protecting democracy and the people who too often don’t have a voice…In particular [its] work on regulatory reform and climate change has been a very valuable resource to me and my office…Our democracy is facing threats on many fronts: violent extremism, disenfranchisement, dark money, unchecked corporate political power. That’s an important fight for all of us to be in.”

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse

United States Senator of Rhode Island

“From the start, the Center for Progressive Reform has been a wise investment. The organization has consistently provided more bang for the buck than most other organizations. Its band of really smart Davids have demonstrated how to effectively challenge the Goliaths that stand in the way of a truly fair, equitable, and responsive government. I’m proud to have been part of the Center’s community for 20 years as an ally, advocate, and funder.”

Gary D. Bass, Ph.D.

Former Executive Director of OMB Watch and Bauman Foundation

“The Center for Progressive Reform is an invaluable ally and partner for Public Citizen and everyone working for the public interest — networking, connecting, and activating brilliant academics and experts to offset the bought expertise of Corporate America. The Center has made America a safer, fairer, more just, and more decent country. There’s certainly lots more to do! And we look forward to partnering for decades to come.”

Robert Weissman

President of Public Citizen

“The Center for Progressive Reform is a remarkable organization. It carries enormous influence and authority on a huge range of issues because of its ability to bring in hugely talented scholars across many disciplines of expertise. And the Center is a tremendous partner for so many of us in the progressive community because of the expertise it can tap, but also because they focus on achievable policy goals.”

Andy Rosenberg

former Director of Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists

“The experience of working with the Center for Progressive Reform on a policy report was incredibly rewarding and helped me to grow as a scholar. Their expertise in translating scholarship into action is inspirational and pressingly important in this moment of mounting democratic and ecological crises.”

Shelley Welton

Presidential Distinguished Professor of Law and Energy Policy at Penn Carey Law and Kleinman Center for Energy Policy

“The Chesapeake Legal Alliance is grateful for our past and continued partnerships with the Center for Progressive Reform. Their dynamic and dedicated staff team up with a wide array of the nation’s leading academics and professionals to provide critical and broad expertise for the environmental issues we face. The Center’s work has been fundamental to our efforts across the Chesapeake Bay region and beyond, on issues ranging from drinking water safety to state renewable energy policies, accountability for industrial pollution, workers rights, and many others.”

David Reed

Executive Director of the Chesapeake Legal Alliance

“The American Association for Justice (AAJ) has proudly collaborated with the Center for Progressive Reform and its member scholars to educate Congress, government officials, and the general public on how civil justice and regulatory safeguards work together to protect health and safety. Through reports, including its “Truth About Torts” series, webinars, and interactive websites, the Center’s virtual think tank of scholars from a multitude of law schools are able to share the expertise, engage on unfolding civil justice issues, and help propel policy forward. We look forward to our continued shared efforts to protect the legal rights of all Americans.”

Sue Steinman

Senior Director of Policy & Senior Counsel, American Association for Justice

“The Center for Progressive Reform’s social change model is a blend of research expertise, community organizing, and legal advocacy. As a legal intern at the Center, I drew from each of these while advocating for climate justice alongside communities disproportionately harmed by the fossil fuel industry and the impacts of climate change.”

Hannah Klaus

former legal intern, Center for Progressive Reform

“Congratulations on the Center for Progressive Reform’s 20th anniversary! I’ve followed the Center’s work from the very beginning, so I’m a long-time fan of the kind of hard-hitting (but fact-driven) advocacy to advance or defend rules that protect public health. The Center’s ability to draw on a network of experts from academia with deep knowledge of administrative law and regulatory decision-making has been invaluable to my organization and to many other public interest groups. We’ve also enjoyed working closely with the Center to improve enforcement of laws that protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed and appreciated your efforts to beef up rules to reduce urban and agricultural stormwater runoff.”

Eric Schaeffer

Executive Director, Environmental Integrity Project

“The Center for Progressive Reform has been a valued partner both as a member of the Chesapeake Accountability Project (CAP) and in the court of public opinion. The Center has led CAP on several important fronts, including an enforcement scorecard comparing the history of state environmental enforcement over an eleven-year period. The Scorecard emphasizes the need for consistent environmental enforcement by state agencies as opposed to just compliance assurance. Without the Center’s dogged work, this message would not have been sent. Moreover, research and writing from the Center’s stable of scholars has supported many policy and litigation projects undertaken by the citizen environmental organizations in the Chesapeake Bay region. That this material is coming from respected leaders in the citizens environmental movement provides a firm foundation allowing us to push cutting-edge policies and litigation.”

Jon Mueller

Vice President for Litigation, Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Climate protestors holding a sign that demands climate justice now

MAKE AN IMPACT

Join us in celebrating our 20th anniversary

Twenty years ago, a handful of law professors launched the Center for Progressive Reform to counter efforts to deregulate industry and weaken protections for people and the planet. The Center played a key role in blocking that effort and has achieved an extraordinary legacy of progressive change since then. Please help make our next 20 years even more successful than our first two decades as we work on your behalf to address the climate crisis, the precarious state of our governing institutions, and the need for racial and social justice.

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