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Showing 2,807 results

James Goodwin | December 19, 2013

Anti-science and anti-democratic: House Republicans’ farm bill rider seeks to tie up critical safeguards indefinitely

It’s like a Russian nesting doll of bad policy:  House Republicans have contrived to take one of the most anti-science bills in memory and then place it inside one of the most anti-democratic legislative vehicles available.  It’s part of an attempt to ram through into law new rulemaking requirements that would benefit the already-healthy bottom […]

Rena Steinzor | December 17, 2013

ACUS’s final statement on OIRA Is weak tea and wide of the mark

Recently, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) adopted a statement on how to improve the “timeliness” of rule reviews by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). As regular readers know, OIRA has time and again delayed the release of crucial health, safety, and environmental regulations, leaving the public exposed […]

Rena Steinzor | December 17, 2013

Weak Tea and Wide of the Mark

Recently, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) adopted a statement on how to improve the “timeliness” of rule reviews by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). As regular readers know, OIRA has time and again delayed the release of crucial health, safety, and environmental regulations, leaving the public exposed […]

Matthew Freeman | December 17, 2013

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Recently, the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS) adopted a statement on how to improve the “timeliness” of rule reviews by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). As regular readers know, OIRA has time and again delayed the release of crucial health, safety, and environmental regulations, leaving the public exposed […]

Victor Flatt | December 12, 2013

EPA’s ability to regulate cross-state pollution unnecessarily at stake: SCOTUS should uphold transport rule

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in EME Homer City Generation v. EPA.  At issue in the case was the ability of EPA to regulate cross-state pollution, or pollution generated in some states that is carried over to others downwind. Eight “downwind” states, primarily in the Northeast, filed a brief in support […]

Lisa Heinzerling | December 12, 2013

Learning from the FDA’s Plan B fiasco

In  2001, a group of private citizens, public health groups, and medical organizations petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve nonprescription status for the emergency contraceptive Plan B and its generic cousins.  Under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the FDA’s decision was supposed to turn on whether these drugs could be taken safely and efficaciously […]

Rena Steinzor | December 10, 2013

Fiddling while rome burns: 64 dead, 741 sick, and Cass Sunstein’s dangerous love affair with cost-benefit analysis

Former (de)regulatory czar Cass Sunstein is back, full of advice on how to run the government from his perch as a Harvard law professor.  In a “View” column for Bloomberg News entitled “Left and Right Are Both Wrong About Regulation,” Sunstein urges his former allies and enemies to redouble their efforts to “look back” at […]

Erin Kesler | December 9, 2013

CPR’s Tom McGarity in today’s NY Times: President’s inequality speech left out regulation

Today, Center for Progressive Reform Member Scholar and University of Texas law professor Thomas O. McGarity published an op-ed in the New York Times entitled,”What Obama Left Out of His Inequality Speech: Reguation.”  In a speech last week, the President highlighted the problems associated with extreme socio-economic disparity. But, as McGarity notes in his piece: […]

Anne Havemann | December 5, 2013

What could MDE do with an extra $400,000?

Late last month, the Center for Progressive Reform revealed that the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) waives pollution permit application fees for concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in the state, and that the agency is far behind in processing such applications. Now we’re able to put a number on MDE’s decision: MDE is waiving […]