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 cannot take effect without OIRA’s final approval. Once completed, the crude-by-rail rulemaking would help to avoid train derailments and crashes involving the more than 415,000 rail-carloads of flammable crude oil traveling across the United States each year, and to minimize the consequences of such catastrophes if and when they do occur. A recent CPR Issue Alert featured the rulemaking as among the essential 13 regulatory actions that the Obama Administration should commit to completing during its remaining time in office.
OIRA’s centralized review can be a highly contentious and politically charged process, as it allows corporate interests to attack rules they find inconvenient behind closed doors out of the public view. A 2011 CPR White Paper found that industry lobbyists dominate these closed-door meetings, with 65 percent of the meetings’ participants representing regulated industries. In these meetings, industry lobbyists typically find an audience—often made up of the conservative economists that comprise much of OIRA’s staff as well as political operators from the West Wing—that is sympathetic to their pitch. This White Paper and other academic research has shown that industry dominance of the OIRA review process has its desired antiregulatory effect, resulting in rules being delayed, watered down, and sometimes blocked altogether.
The crude-by-rail safety standard is likely to be the target of this kind of 11th hour industry lobbying. When the draft proposal underwent OIRA review last summer, it was the subject of 19 meetings—all of which were with industry groups that would potentially be subject to the rule’s requirements.
CPR will keep close watch on the process to monitor how frequently industry groups parade through the doors at the Old Executive Office Building to make their case for weaker safeguards, delays in implementation, or both. CPR will also monitor whether the OIRA review process goes beyond the 90-day maximum permitted by Executive Order 12866—the document that laws the ground rules for OIRA’s review process—and what changes are made to the final rule during the process (assuming OIRA complies with Executive Order 12866’s requirements mandating that it publicize the “red-line” document showing what changes have been made during the review process).
In the meantime, the Obama Administration is to be commended for demonstrating the appropriate sense of urgency in moving the crude-by-rail safety standard toward completion. Despite the complex technical and engineering questions the rule entails, and despite the powerful entrenched corporate interests that the rule would ultimately regulate, the Department of Transportation appears to be poised to take this rule from the Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking stage to completion in less than three years. It is not uncommon for similar rulemakings to stretch out over eight years or longer. This rapid progress is a testament to what presidential administrations can achieve if they resist political interference and make safeguarding the public a top priority. We urge the Obama Administration—and indeed future presidential administrations—to adopt this approach when implementing regulations that are necessary for protecting people and the environment.
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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 […]
James Goodwin | January 22, 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 small businesses at […]
Anne Havemann | January 21, 2015
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan was sworn in earlier today and legislators, farmers, environmentalists, state agency staff, and scientists are waiting with bated breath to see whether he will act on his post-election promise to fight the proposed Phosphorous Management Tool (PMT). The desperately needed regulation would limit the amount of phosphorus-laded chicken manure farmers can spread […]
Matt Shudtz | January 20, 2015
Last week on The Pump Handle, Kim Krisberg highlighted an interesting pilot program in Rockaway Township, New Jersey that puts an extra set of eyes on the lookout for workplace safety concerns that might otherwise have gone unnoticed by government inspectors. As she explains here, restaurant inspectors in Rockaway are pilot testing a simple modification […]