Blog

This afternoon, the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial, and Antitrust Law will hold an oversight hearing that looks at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), the powerful White House bureau that sits at the center of the regulatory universe.  Originally created to oversee federal agencies’ implementation of the Paperwork Reduction […]

This afternoon, Speaker Paul Ryan is scheduled to announce the House majority’s latest plan to weaken the U.S. system of regulatory safeguards on which all Americans depend. The following is Center for Progressive Reform Senior Policy Analyst James Goodwin’s reaction to this plan:  Speaker Ryan and his anti-regulatory apostles in the House would have you […]

Tomorrow, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management, and Regulatory Oversight is set to hold a hearing investigating the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) compliance with the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). UMRA is striking because it was passed in 1995 as part of then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s attacks on the […]

This afternoon, the Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife Subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will convene a hearing on a topic that is fast becoming the congressional conservative equivalent of talking about the weather: the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Clean Water Rule.  With the provocative title of "Erosion of Exemptions and Expansion of […]

The growing problem of economic inequality in the United States continues to draw significant attention – and for good reason. By 2011, America’s top 1 percent owned more than 40 percent of the nation’s wealth, and ours ranks as one of the most unequal economies among developed countries. Meanwhile, the median wage rate for workers […]

These days, it seems a week doesn’t go by without some conservative advocacy group releasing a new study that purports to measure the total annual costs of federal regulation. In this case, it’s literally true. Last week, the reliably anti-regulatory Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) put out its annual tally, provocatively titled “Ten Thousand Commandments,” which […]

Once upon a time, congressional conservatives pretended to care about the appearance, if not the reality, of corruption afflicting the federal budgeting process. Strangely, they chose to act on their sanctimonious outrage by banning earmarks – or legislative instructions that direct federal agencies to spend appropriated funds on certain specified projects – while leaving the […]

Center for Progressive Reform Member Scholar Joel Mintz submitted written testimony to the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial, and Antitrust Law ahead of its hearing this morning on yet another ill-advised bill, the misleadingly named “Stop Settlement Funds Slush Funds Act of 2016.” The bill would place arbitrary limits on how the […]

Several weeks ago, Sen. Elizabeth Warren delivered perhaps the most important speech on the U.S. regulatory system in recent memory at a forum on regulatory capture organized by the Administrative Conference of the United States. In it, she described how the regulatory system was not working for the people as it should be – or […]