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Showing 273 results

James Goodwin

Policy Director

James Goodwin | February 27, 2015

More Fun Than Escaped Llamas: House GOP to Hold Yet Another Antiregulatory Hearing

In keeping with an apparent effort to hold an antiregulatory hearing on any and all days ending in “y,” Congressional Republicans have teed up yet another humdinger for Monday, March 2. That’s when the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Administrative law will take a closer look at three more antiregulatory bills […]

James Goodwin | February 24, 2015

What Should be Discussed at the Senate Homeland Security’s Hearing on the U.S. Regulatory System (But Probably Won’t)

A clock hangs in Room 342 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building—the room where tomorrow at 10:00 am the Republican leadership of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee will convene its first antiregulatory circus hearing of the new Congress.  Below that clock, the hearing will play out according to a now-familiar script:  the […]

James Goodwin | February 17, 2015

But Wait, There’s Less! The GOP Has a ‘Sue and Settle’ Bill They Would Like to Sell You

Last week, Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) continued the parade of anti-regulatory bills resurrected from past sessions of Congress by introducing in their respective chambers the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2015 (SRDSA).  While all of these anti-regulatory bills are categorically terrible, the SRDSA really needs to be […]

James Goodwin | February 13, 2015

At Last, the Obama Administration Acknowledges Need for Urgency on Advancing Regulatory Agenda

At last, the Obama Administration is articulating a sense of urgency about moving vitally needed health and safty regulations through its pipeline. Here’s Howard Shelanski, White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, in a Bloomberg BNA story this week: “So we are working now, here in January of 2015, on getting priorities lined up, […]

James Goodwin | February 9, 2015

Department of Transportation’s Crude-by-Rail Safety Standards Keep Chugging Along

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 […]

James Goodwin | January 28, 2015

Your Up-to-Date 10-Day Forecast for Capitol Hill: A Blizzard of Antiregulatory Bills

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

In Their Rush to Help Big Business, Antiregulatory Members of Congress are Trampling Small Ones Along the Way

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 […]

James Goodwin | January 22, 2015

The Anti-Regulatory Crowd’s Small Business Rhetoric Is a Scam

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 […]

James Goodwin | January 14, 2015

GAO Debunks Republicans’ ‘Sue and Settle’ Myth

Today, Rep. Fred Upton and the rest of his anti-environmental allies on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are probably suffering from a stingingbout of buyers’ remorse as the Government Accountability Office report they requested didn’t deliver the answer they were seeking.   The Commerce Committee hoped to demonstrate that “In many instances, EPA has entered into settlements or consent […]