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Showing 2,810 results

Lena Pons | July 18, 2011

Regulatory Plans Show Agencies at Risk of Failing to Finish Numerous Critical Rules During President Obama’s First Term

In April, CPR released a paper that looked at 12 critical rulemaking activities that we urged the Obama administration to finish by June 2012. The new regulatory agendas released by the agencies earlier this month show that instead of moving forward, the agencies are often slowing down.  Contrary to the “tsunami” of regulations that the Chamber […]

Ben Somberg | July 15, 2011

Debunked SBA Regulatory Costs Study Front and Center at House Energy & Commerce Committee Hearing

The House Energy & Commerce sub-committee on Environment and the Economy held a hearing yesterday on “regulatory chaos” (yikes!). One figure seemed popular: $1.75 trillion. That’s how much regulations cost the U.S. economy each year, sub-committee vice-chair Tim Murphy said in his opening statement. Two of the four witnesses made the same claim in their […]

Daniel Rosenberg | July 14, 2011

Through the Looking Glass: Chemical Industry to Star in the Role of Weeping Walrus at House Hearing on EPA’s Assessment of Toxic Chemicals

Editor’s Note: This morning, CPR President Rena Steinzor will testify at a House hearing regarding EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System chemical database (full testimony). This post by NRDC Senior Attorney Daniel Rosenberg, cross-posted from Switchboard, explains the importance of IRIS and how the program is under attack. Thursday morning, the House Science Committee’s Investigation and […]

Rena Steinzor | July 14, 2011

The Big Business Dilemma: What Could Happen When Government Is Gone

The nation’s capital is all but intolerable these days, even for those of us who have lived here for decades and are used to excessive histrionics and gross summer weather. A pall of bad, hot, wet air has settled over the place, and serves as a backdrop to the slow-motion car wreck that is the debt […]

Lena Pons | July 13, 2011

Some Pleasant Surprises in Agency Regulatory Plans

Last week, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) of the Office of Management and Budget released the semiannual regulatory agenda. I pointed out that the agenda, which contains the regulatory agencies’ planned actions, was quite late. Although the plans share problems from past years, like simply pushing back the target dates for regulatory actions, there […]

Thomas McGarity | July 13, 2011

President Obama’s Puzzling New Executive Order: Should the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Really be Spending Its Precious Time and Resources Weakening Existing Regulations?

On Monday, the White House announced that President Obama had signed a new executive order on federal regulation to supplement January’s executive order to executive branch regulatory agencies. The new executive order is aimed at the “independent agencies,” so named because the heads of those agencies do not serve at the pleasure of the president. By statute, […]

Lesley McAllister | July 12, 2011

The End of the Acid Rain Program

Cross-posted from Environmental Law Prof Blog. Do you realize that the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency  last week represents the end of the famed Acid Rain Program? It’s a good thing because the Acid Rain Program had outlived its usefulness by several years and its allowance market had collapsed. Legislated […]

Ben Somberg | July 8, 2011

Member Scholars Pen Letter to OMB on Attacks on EPA’s IRIS Toxics Database

Last month, the American Chemistry Council sent a letter to Jacob Lew, Director of the Office of Managmenet and Budget, calling on OMB to “take greater responsibility in the coordination and review of chemical safety assessments” and to “require EPA to submit all ongoing EPA IRIS assessments to the NAS for independent review.” The letter […]

Lena Pons | July 7, 2011

Looking Back, But How Much Looking Ahead? Agencies Release Regulatory Agendas Months Late

The Administration has been busy promoting President Obama’s new approach to regulatory review, which required federal regulatory agencies to produce plans for how they would review existing regulations and look for regulations to cut. But while the mad dash to find regulations the administration can trot out as misguided or outdated continued, the agencies were delayed […]