CPR President Rena Steinzor and Member Scholar Thomas McGarity sent a letter this morning to Paul Verkuil, Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), taking the independent federal agency to task for its increasingly apparent bias toward the views of industry groups and its troubling alliance with current and former officials at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). By repeatedly partnering with groups engaged in destructive battles with the agencies that write protective regulations, ACUS deviates from its stated mission of “providing nonpartisan expert advice and recommendations for improvement of federal agency procedures,” argue Steinzor and McGarity.
After losing its funding in 1995, ACUS was officially revived in 2010 at the urging of a broad spectrum of experts and organizations, including public interest groups, some of which are represented among ACUS’ membership. As Steinzor and McGarity write:
One reason advanced for ACUS’ reemergence was the inability of existing institutions, such as OIRA itself, to be reliably neutral and independent in studying ways to improve the administrative process. If ACUS comes to be seen as merely another vehicle for OIRA loyalists and their industry allies to press their agendas and drown out opposing voices, then ACUS will lose part of its distinctive raison d'être.
In that event, they suggest, many of ACUS’ original supporters may be forced to reassess its value and even withdraw from the organization.
Among other things, Steinzor and McGarity discuss ACUS’ decision to lend its imprimatur to a one-sided workshop next Tuesday hosted by trade associations and industry-friendly think tanks. Worse still, the workshop will address the quality of chemical risk assessments and the EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), a subject that industry groups are only too eager to co-opt in their efforts to attack regulation, and which lies outside ACUS’ expertise in administrative procedures.
Steinzor and McGarity also express dismay at ACUS’ refusal to take up issues related to OIRA, even when they are legitimately implicated by one of its research projects:
In the lead-up to ACUS’ reauthorization and funding, those urging the return of the organization expected that, among other things, it would study and make recommendations related to OIRA’s review of agency rulemaking, including the transparency of that process. ACUS’ reluctance to address—or even take notice of—procedural problems in centralized review suggests an internal bias in favor of OIRA…. … Furthermore, the polite reassurances that the OIRA issues will be shelved for “another report and another day” ring hollow, since there appear to be no plans to take them up in the foreseeable future.
These biases are partially explained (and exacerbated) by the fact that ACUS’ governing Council is lopsided in favor of OIRA partisans and industry advocates, a flaw that Steinzor and McGarity urge ACUS to rectify.
The letter is here.
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Michael Patoka | October 18, 2012
CPR President Rena Steinzor and Member Scholar Thomas McGarity sent a letter this morning to Paul Verkuil, Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS), taking the independent federal agency to task for its increasingly apparent bias toward the views of industry groups and its troubling alliance with current and former officials at […]
Aimee Simpson | October 18, 2012
Last week I visited a dairy farm with my two year-old son. Complete with hayrides, homemade ice cream, cows mooing, and a bluegrass band, the fall festival provided us with some good, wholesome entertainment. My son giggled as the baby cows licked his hand, oohed and awed at the fluffy baby chicks, and, of course, […]
Amy Sinden | October 18, 2012
The Clean Water Act turns 40 today. One of the remarkable things about those four decades is the extent to which the Act has largely withstood repeated attempts by industry to water down its technology-based standard-setting provisions with cost-benefit analysis. Just three years ago, when the U.S. Supreme Court decided Entergy Corp. v. Riverkeeper, environmentalists […]
Robert Verchick | October 17, 2012
VARANASI — We slip into the river at night, and with an easy stroke, our oarsman moves our boat across the chestnut waters of “Mother Ganga,” India’s Ganges River. Spiritual life in Varanasi (also called Benares) is a passion. Hindus all over India save their money for the chance to visit this holy city and […]
Sandra Zellmer | October 16, 2012
This post was written by CPR Member Scholars Robert Glicksman and Sandra Zellmer. Visual images of burning rivers, oil-soaked seagulls, and other grossly contaminated resources spurred the enactment of the nation’s foundational environmental laws in the 1970s, including the Clean Water Act (CWA). Similarly, evocative prose like Rachel Carson’s description of the “strange blight” poisoning […]
Robert Adler | October 15, 2012
Congress adopted the “modern” version of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, more commonly known as the “Clean Water Act,” forty years ago this week (Pub. L. No. 92-500, Oct. 18, 1972). As Congress faces persistent efforts to weaken this law, it is important to take stock of why the law was passed, how well […]
Robin Kundis Craig | October 15, 2012
There is no question but that the Clean Water Act has led to enormous improvements in water quality throughout the United States. Funding for publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) has largely eliminated the use of the nation's waterways for the disposal of raw sewage. Most point source discharges are now subject to permitting and technology-based […]
A. Dan Tarlock | October 12, 2012
As the Clean Water Act (CWA) turns 40, it is useful to compare it to the cars on the road in 1972. Big cars, some still adorned with tail fins and grills, ruled the road, running on 36 cents per gallon gas. Forty years later, we look back on the early 70s and ask how […]
James Goodwin | October 11, 2012
The Vice Presidential debate is tonight, and I suspect that, among other things, we’ll hear Paul Ryan give some general talk of “reducing red tape” or “reducing government burdens on job creators.” We probably won’t hear a pitch for blocking air pollution rules that would save thousands of lives—which, after all, doesn’t poll well. But […]