At last, the Obama Administration is articulating a sense of urgency about moving vitally needed health and safty regulations through its pipeline. Here’s Howard Shelanski, White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, in a Bloomberg BNA story this week:
“So we are working now, here in January of 2015, on getting priorities lined up, so that we do not find ourselves at some point in 2016 with really important policy priorities unexecuted,” Shelanski said.
Later in the interview:
Still, the reason OIRA is working hard with agencies in early 2015 is so they can bring the most important rules through the process this year and finalize them sometime in early 2016, Shelanski said.
It’s about time. Last November, CPR released an Issue Alert calling on the Obama Administration to seize the opportunity offered by its remaining time in office and complete a slate of 13 essential regulatory safeguards that would deliver long-lasting protections for public health, safety, and the environment. In particular, the Issue Alert urged the Administration to immediately begin taking steps toward charting a course for these and other safeguards that would ensure their completion “by no later than June 30, 2016,” which would ensure that they are not swept up in any political riptides in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential elections and to otherwise insulate them against potential repeal under the Congressional Review Act.
We congratulate the Obama Administration for recognizing the need for this urgency, and we are heartened that they appear to be taking concrete steps to translate this recognition into meaningful action. It is especially noteworthy that the head of the office that is usually most responsible for regulatory delays and for amplifying industry’s tired myths about the burdens of regulations is serving as the Administration’s messenger on this critical topic. After all, because of its institutional role in the regulatory process, OIRA will be largely responsible for ensuring that timely progress is made on regulatory safeguards.
In the months to come, we expect conservative members of Congress and their corporate benefactors to dial up their antiregulatory attacks even more, singling out several of the important safeguards that the Obama Administration is currently working on. We urge the Obama to respond forcefully to these attacks by using his bully pulpit to explain to the American public why the urgency for these safeguards is so great. The President should have no trouble explaining that many of these safeguards have been delayed for many years already—in some cases longer than a decade—and that, once completed, they will deliver real benefits for the American people in terms of protecting their health, safety, and the natural environment on which they depend.
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James Goodwin | February 13, 2015
At last, the Obama Administration is articulating a sense of urgency about moving vitally needed health and safty regulations through its pipeline. Here’s Howard Shelanski, White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, in a Bloomberg BNA story this week: “So we are working now, here in January of 2015, on getting priorities lined up, […]
Rena Steinzor | February 11, 2015
Today, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reiterated its conclusion that EPA’s regulation of toxic chemicals is in crisis, unable to deliver badly needed protection to the American people. These benighted programs are among a couple of dozen of “high priority” failures that cause serious harm to public health, waste resources, or endanger national security, and […]
Matt Shudtz | February 9, 2015
In Kansas and Maryland, two states separated by geography and politics, Republican state lawmakers are touting plans that could seriously alter the institutions that workers in those states rely upon to keep them safe on the job. Two weeks ago, Maryland Delegate (now State Senator) Andrew Serafini introduced a bill that would make drastic changes […]
James Goodwin | February 9, 2015
According to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs’ (OIRA) records, the Department of Transportation submitted its draft final crude-by-rail safety rule for White House review late last week. OIRA’s review of draft final rules represents the last hurdle in what can be a long and resource-intensive rulemaking process; just about any rule of consequence […]
Matt Shudtz | February 4, 2015
Tomorrow, the House is set to vote on the Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act (SBRFIA), a piece of legislation that CPR Senior Policy Analyst James Goodwin has explained would “further entrench big businesses’ control over rulemaking institutions and procedures that are ostensibly intended to help small businesses participate more effectively in the development of […]
James Goodwin | January 28, 2015
While meteorologists’ recent doom-laden predictions of an apocalyptic blizzard hitting the mid-Atlantic may not have exactly panned out, I have a forecast that you can take to the bank: A large mass of conservative hot air has recently moved into the Washington, DC, region where it is now combining with a high pressure zone of […]
James Goodwin | January 26, 2015
Just as The Sixth Sense makes more sense when you realize that Bruce Willis’s character has been dead the whole time, the Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act (SBRFIA)—the latest antiregulatory bill being championed by antiregulatory members of the House of Representatives—makes more sense when you realize that it has nothing to do with helping […]
Rena Steinzor | January 23, 2015
There were many highlights in President Obama’s recent State of the Union address, but one passage in particular stuck out for us. In this passage, Obama laid out his clear vision of the positive role that government can and must play in our society—and sharing this vision with the American public will be essential for […]
Daniel Farber | January 23, 2015
Black lung has been the underlying or contributing cause of death for more than 75,000 coal miners since 1968, according to NIOSH, the federal agency responsible for conducting research on work-related diseases and injuries. Since 1970, the Department of Labor has paid over $44 billion in benefits to miners totally disabled by respiratory diseases (or […]