As the Center for Progressive Reform enters our third decade of advocating for progressive policy for the public good, our country is facing wholly unprecedented challenges: A suffering climate. Unimaginable inequality and inequities that dispossess the majority. A faltering democracy.
The Center is extremely gratified to have three new Board members join us and lend their deep expertise and wide range of experiences as we tackle these challenges and more.
First, we enthusiastically welcome Sharon Block, who brings a wealth of experience in labor policy, regulatory oversight, and strategic visioning for a just economy. Sharon recently served as the Acting Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in President Joe Biden’s White House and currently serves as Professor of Practice and Executive Director of the Center for Labor and a Just Economy at Harvard Law School.
We will also benefit enormously from the expertise of Karen Sokol, a professor of law at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. Her research and public voice on issues of international law, climate law and policy, and corporations' environmental impact are well-regarded by the media and policymakers alike. As a former staff member and current Member Scholar of the Center, she has supported us for many years and in many capacities.
We are also deeply indebted to Steph Tai, a professor of law at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, whose research examines the interactions between environmental and health sciences and administrative law. With a Ph.D. in chemistry and a law degree, Steph brings a wealth of issue expertise (food systems, risk regulation, the role of science in environmental protection), as well as governance and administrative law.
These new Board members, as well as the rest of our Board, Member Scholar network, and staff, will help hone our role in contributing ideas and approaches on the “how” of governance, which is more important than ever in facing — and overcoming — our nation's and world's significant challenges. Harnessing the power of law, we will continue our work to restore “the public” as the central concern of public policymaking, to include the communities often excluded from political processes, and to restore and strengthen government safeguards that protect our air, water, workplaces, climate, and more.
Full bios of our new Board members are available on our website.
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Minor Sinclair | March 6, 2023
As the Center for Progressive Reform enters our third decade of advocating for progressive policy for the public good, our country is facing wholly unprecedented challenges: A suffering climate. Unimaginable inequality and inequities that dispossess the majority. A faltering democracy. The Center is extremely gratified to have three new Board members join us and lend their deep expertise and wide range of experiences as we tackle these challenges and more.
Daniel Farber | March 2, 2023
The headline news is that Minnesota has adopted a 2040 deadline for a carbon-free grid. The headline is accurate, but the law in question contains a lot of other interesting features that deserve attention.
Daniel Farber | March 1, 2023
Last December, the Biden administration issued a rule defining the scope of the federal government’s authority over streams and wetlands. Congressional Republicans vowed to overturn the rule, using a procedure created by the Congressional Review Act. If Congress is going to repeal something, it should be the Congressional Review Act rather than the Biden rule.
Richard Pierce, Jr. | February 28, 2023
I recently accepted an invitation from Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy and the Pacific Legal Foundation to contribute to a symposium on “Ensuring Democratic Responsibility in the Administrative State.” I decided to begin with ideas that I borrowed from former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Howard Taft and former Justice Stephen Breyer.
James Goodwin | February 28, 2023
In today's "point" post on this blog, Member Scholar Richard Pierce described how centralized regulatory review conducted by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) is effective in ensuring the democratic accountability of the administrative state. In this companion post, I’ll offer a competing view of whether centralized review fulfills this objective in practice and what that means for the standards and safeguards designed to protect our health, safety, and lives.
Richard Pierce, Jr. | February 28, 2023
At the request of Senior Policy Analyst James Goodwin, I posted a brief summary of an essay in which I described the advantages that I see in expanding the scope of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and combining its use of cost-benefit analysis with some doctrines that the U.S. Supreme Court has already adopted. I did so, and Goodwin suggested pairing it with a "counterpoint" post he subsequently prepared and also gave me the opportunity to rebut that counterpoint. I do so here.
Katlyn Schmitt | February 27, 2023
Everyone should have a fair chance to live the healthiest life possible, but that’s not always the case for many of our communities. That's particularly true of overburdened communities that bear the brunt of pollution and toxic chemical exposures. But help may be on the way in Maryland in the form of the Climate, Labor, and Environmental Equity Act of 2023, and I testified in strong support of the bill on February 23.
Marcha Chaudry | February 16, 2023
February started with news that's all too familiar in the United States: An incident involving highly toxic industrial chemicals sparked a large fire, threatening an explosion, forcing evacuations, and putting workers and community members directly in harm's way. In this case, the danger came from a derailed train in Ohio that was hauling cancer-causing vinyl chloride, used to make certain types of plastic; toxic phosgene, an industrial chemical that was also used as a chemical weapon in World War I; and other substances. But extreme, acute threats like the Ohio derailment aren't the only toxic chemical dangers facing workers and surrounding communities.
James Goodwin | February 15, 2023
Last week, the Biden administration took the next step on its important initiative to “broaden public engagement in the federal regulatory process,” announcing a set of proposed reforms and asking for more public feedback. As the announcement explains, these proposals reflect input the administration received during a public listening session and an open comment period it conducted last November — both of which I participated in along with several members of the public interest community. I was pleased to find that many of our recommendations were reflected in the proposals.