RegsTalk: The CSS Blog

By Stacy Woods, Natural Resources Defense Council Hurricane Michael, the strongest hurricane to ever strike Florida’s Panhandle, brought catastrophic winds, rain, and storm surge to the coastal and inland communities along Florida’s Gulf of Mexico. The powerful storm is also... Continue Reading

By Emily Peterson-Cassin, Public Citizen Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) published a report that once again criticized the Internal Revenue Service for failing to adequately enforce the rules on nonprofit political... Continue Reading

By Joel Mintz, Center for Progressive Reform To serve the cause of justice, law enforcement must be prompt, even-handed, and appropriate to the circumstances of individual cases. In their handling of an important recent pollution case, however, the enforcement activities of the... Continue Reading

By the National Employment Law Project NELP recently submitted a comment to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urging the agency to impose tougher penalties on companies that collude to suppress wages. We filed the comment in response to a proposed settlement in a case where the... Continue Reading

By Jacob Carter, Union of Concerned Scientists “That week, her mother chose groceries over her daughter’s asthma inhaler. Food for your children over medicine for your children; for a parent, there is not a more tortuous game of Russian Roulette than this. That week, this... Continue Reading

By Gretchen Goldman, Union of Concerned Scientists In the latest of several moves targeting EPA air pollution protections, the Trump administration appears to have cut scientists out of a process for reviewing particulate pollution standards.  The move breaks with a longstanding... Continue Reading

By Alex Formuzis and Robert Coleman, Environmental Working Group Under President Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency has repeatedly betrayed its responsibility to safeguard the health of children. But in recent weeks, the hostile actions of the president and Andrew... Continue Reading

By Kelly Kramer, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy In June of this year, 24-year-old Mexican-born Miguel Angel Guzman Chavez started a new job picking tomatoes in Georgia. Five days later, soaring temperatures led him to collapse in the field, sending him into cardiac... Continue Reading

By Sam Gomberg, Union of Concerned Scientists President Trump’s nomination of Bernard McNamee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) may not grab a lot of headlines but make no mistake – it’s a blatant (and oft repeated) move by the Trump administration to pollute an... Continue Reading

By Matt Kent, Public Citizen Deregulation and rigorous cost-benefit analysis are core values for the Trump administration, except when it comes to denying immigrants the right to live and work in the U.S. According to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) own conservative... Continue Reading

By Joseph Tomain, Center for Progressive Reform Industry Trends In short, energy projections demonstrate a clear trend for clean energy and away from fossil fuels. These trends, directly and negatively, affect traditional electric utilities. About the time that rooftop solar... Continue Reading

By Better Markets In May, President Trump signed a law deregulating 26 of the largest 40 banks in the country.  Many were the same banks that received massive bailouts just ten years ago when Wall Street’s biggest banks caused the worst financial collapse since the Great Crash of... Continue Reading

By Carrie Apfel, Earthjutice Food manufacturers can no longer use seven synthetic flavors that have been shown to cause cancer in animals, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruled on Oct. 5. The chemicals, which may also cause cancer in humans, add flavors such as mint,... Continue Reading

By Joseph Tomain, Center for Progressive Reform On August 21, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule as a substitute for the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan (CPP). The CPP had been stayed from going into effect by... Continue Reading

By Dennis Kelleher and Jack Reidhill, Better Markets As the country’s financial system spiraled out of control, ten years ago today President George W. Bush signed into law the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 creating the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program... Continue Reading

By Kim Smaczniak, Earthjustice Most Americans probably don’t know that an independent—and up to now nonpartisan—government agency has played a key role in our nation’s transition to cleaner energy technologies. Under the radar and hidden beneath a layer of technical jargon, the... Continue Reading

By the Natural Resources Defense Council After weeks of high-profile questioning before the Senate Judiciary Committee, intense public backlash, a last-minute FBI investigation into allegations of sexual assault, and a shockingly blatant display of partisanship by the Supreme... Continue Reading

By Kathleen Rest, Union of Concerned Scientists October 1 marked the beginning of Children’s Health Month, the month when health organizations, health professionals, government agencies, and others work to raise public awareness of children’s unique vulnerabilities and highlight... Continue Reading

By Shanna Devine, Public Citizen Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced that it will issue waivers that allow poultry slaughterhouses to increase their line speeds from the already dangerous 140 birds per minute (BPM) to 175 BPM. Increased line... Continue Reading

By the Natural Resources Defense Council In response to a lawsuit brought by NRDC and a coalition of health, consumer, and environmental groups, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration today banned seven cancer-causing chemicals found in artificial flavoring used for various food... Continue Reading

By Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group When Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he testified that he had ruled for the environment in “many” and a “large number” of cases. (You can watch his testimony here.) The truth is that... Continue Reading

By Michael Halpern, Union of Concerned Scientists The EPA’s Office of the Science Advisor (OSA) was excluded from discussions around a proposal to restrict the types of science that could be used in agency decisions, according to an email obtained by UCS. Described by EPA as... Continue Reading

By Julie Murray, Public Citizen In a filing last night, the Department of Education announced that it will miss a November 1 statutory deadline to publish a rule that rolls back protections for student loan borrowers and students defrauded by for-profit colleges. Those... Continue Reading

By Bartlett Naylor, Public Citizen As America takes stock of Wall Street 10 years after it crashed the economy, one glaring fact flashes red and demands reform: The megabanks remain too big. On Oct. 3, 2008, Congress approved the largest bailout in the history of any country.... Continue Reading

By Sean Davis Jr., National Consumers League Last week, Facebook announced that they suffered a data breach affecting a reported 50 million users. Coming just over a year to the date from an even larger data breach at Equifax, which affected 146 million consumers, we have to ask:... Continue Reading

By Charise Johnson, Union of Concerned Scientists Last week, Interior Department Deputy Secretary David Bernhardt issued an order, “Promoting Open Science”, purportedly to increase transparency and public accessibility of the research used by the Department to make science-based... Continue Reading

By Melissa Powers, Center for Progressive Reform As Juliet Eilperin, Brady Dennis, and Chris Mooney of The Washington Post reported on September 27, the Trump administration seems to finally be acknowledging that climate change is real. But the motivation for recognizing that... Continue Reading

By Michael Halpern, Union of Concerned Scientists Late last week, the EPA announced its intention to get rid of its Office of the Science Advisor (OSA) and bury its functions deep down in another agency office. This move will significantly diminish efforts to coordinate and... Continue Reading

By Miles Farmer, Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC and the Sustainable FERC Project, together with a coalition of clean energy and consumer advocates, are pressing the nation’s grid regulator, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), to protect consumers from... Continue Reading

By Ricardo Salvador, Union of Concerned Scientists The United States has a complicated history when it comes to science. The very birth of the nation is bound up with the European Scientific Revolution and Age of Enlightenment, culminating in the notion that reason should inform... Continue Reading

By Sally Hardin, Osub Ahmed and Cristina Novoa, Center for American Progress This week, the Trump administration plans to take initial steps to allow power plants to spew toxic mercury and other hazardous pollution into the air, threatening the health of the American public. Like... Continue Reading

By Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group Scott Pruitt and Brett Kavanaugh have something in common. It’s not just that they both believe that the Environmental Protection Agency lacks the power to regulate greenhouse gases. Or that the EPA lacks the power to regulate air... Continue Reading

By James Goodwin, Center for Progressive Reform Sunday marked the 25th anniversary of the issuance of Executive Order 12866, but it was hardly a happy occasion. For all intents and purposes, though, the order, which governs the process by which federal agencies develop... Continue Reading

By David Doniger, Natural Resources Defense Council The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed repealing the Clean Power Plan, the nation’s first limits on the nearly two billion tons of climate-changing carbon pollution coming from power plants each year, and... Continue Reading

By Mary Anne Hitt, Sierra Club As people in North and South Carolina continue to confront flooding and other massive damage from Hurricane Florence, it’s heartbreaking to watch them have to deal with yet another hazard: the toxic coal ash leaked from coal ash ponds and landfills... Continue Reading

By Julie McNamara, Union of Concerned Scientists On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold its only public hearing on the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, the Trump administration’s recently proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) replacement. The CPP was a... Continue Reading

By David Pettit, Natural Resources Defense Council Fresno, California, sits in a heavily-polluted area of California’s San Joaquin Valley and so was an appropriate site for the September 24, 2018 hearing about vehicle-related air pollution—except that the federal proposal in... Continue Reading

By David Wallinga, Natural Resources Defense Council Yesterday, the Trump Administration’s EPA put the pediatrician who heads the Agency’s Office of Children’s Health Protection on administrative leave. Her forced exit raises serious questions about whether this EPA remains... Continue Reading

By Lauren Urbanek, Natural Resources Defense Council There may be some major changes afoot for the energy efficiency standards for manufactured homes, which house 20 million Americans, but it’s unclear whether they will actually save residents energy and money – and wheth... Continue Reading

By Alan Zibel, Public Citizen President Trump often claims that cutting back on regulations will help the U.S. economy. But the Trump administration’s zeal for slashing “red tape” conceals an often-ignored reality: regulations provide massive benefits to consumers, workers and... Continue Reading

By Nora Apter, Natural Resources Defense Council In case Congress needs reminding, we are currently facing a devastating sixth mass extinction. It’s estimated that one in six species will be extinct by the end of the century. The last thing our leaders in government should be... Continue Reading

By Bartlett Naylor, Public Citizen Ten years ago, Wall Street crashed the economy. After a 1999 deregulation law allowed risky investment banks to speculate with the cheap money held by taxpayer-backed insured banks, Wall Street went wild. Reckless, fraudulent conduct inflated a... Continue Reading

By Bonnie Rice, Sierra Club Yesterday, the bears won. Just days before a second temporary restraining order was set to expire, Judge Dana Christensen ruled in favor of Tribal Nations and conservationists in reinstating Yellowstone grizzlies’ Endangered Species protections, saving... Continue Reading

By Luke Tonachel, Natural Resources Defense Council The Trump administration is moving to gut pollution and fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, and this week a broad collection of physicians, labor representatives, innovative business owners, environmental advocates and... Continue Reading

By Ross Sherman, Environment America In today’s national political climate, it can seem that everything — no matter how big or small — is controversial. But here’s an idea that isn’t: our environment is worth protecting. I’m willing to bet, whether you’re talking to someone from... Continue Reading

By Better Markets A financial deregulation bill recently signed by President Trump ended many of the key financial protection rules on 21 of the 40 biggest banks in the country, those with $100-$250 billion in assets.  On top of that legislative deregulation, there has been... Continue Reading

By Rick Claypool, Public Citizen What’s the best day way to figure out whether the government is doing a good job of cracking down on lawbreaking companies? If you ask the current bosses at one federal regulator, it isn’t the number of cases, or the total amount of fines.... Continue Reading

By Diali Avila, National Women’s Law Center This weekend, the Administration announced that it plans to publish a proposed rule that would change longstanding rules for immigrants wanting to enter the United States or change their status to Legal Permanent Resident (LPR or... Continue Reading

By Green for All Dozens of Central Valley residents put off work and other commitments to testify Monday at the U.S. EPA hearing on the “Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Rule”, a proposal put forth by the Trump Administration to weaken clean car standards (despite the... Continue Reading

By Natural Resources Defense Council A federal court ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to finalize the ban on the toxic pesticide chlorpyrifos last month, but the EPA is now asking the court to reconsider its decision. “The Trump administration is shameless in its... Continue Reading

By Derrick Jackson, Union of Concerned Scientists There was dead silence at a community meeting last week in Portsmouth, New Hampshire after Nancy Eaton spoke before a panel of top federal health officials planning a study of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) contamination at the... Continue Reading

By Allison Johnson and Miriam Rotkin-Ellman, Natural Resources Defense Council This summer, a federal court offered the new head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Andrew Wheeler, a chance to right one of Scott Pruitt’s wrongs: ban the dangerous pesticide... Continue Reading

By Genna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists A new UCS factsheet released today looks at PFAS contamination at military bases, revealing that many of the sites have levels of these chemicals in their drinking or groundwater at potentially unsafe levels. PFAS, or poly- and... Continue Reading

By Jessica Knoblauch, Earthjustice As Hurricane Florence floods the Carolinas, a long-buried coal industry secret is rising to the surface. Across the country, giant pits filled with millions of tons of coal ash — a toxic byproduct of burning coal — are leaking. And in the... Continue Reading

By Craig Sandler, Public Citizen Ten years ago the financial world experienced a meltdown that brought on a Great Recession so devastating many Americans have still not fully recovered from it. Starting with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008—th... Continue Reading

By Joel Mintz, Center for Progressive Reform In August, 2017, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma brought widespread devastation to the southeastern United States, destroying buildings, flooding neighborhoods, and taking lives. Harvey shattered the national rainfall record for a single... Continue Reading

By Victor Flatt and Joel Mintz, Center for Progressive Reform What Happened According to the Houston Chronicle, there were more than 100 releases of hazardous substances into land, air, and water during and after Hurricane Harvey. At least one dozen of the Superfund sites listed... Continue Reading

By Michael Halpern, Union of Concerned Scientists The Department of Interior simultaneously announced three majorly flawed proposals that would radically transform how the Endangered Species Act functions and gave the public just 60 days to provide feedback. Yesterday, without... Continue Reading

By Better Markets As the country marks the 10th anniversary of the Lehman Brothers failure and the beginning of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, new polling commissioned by Better Markets, conducted by The Harris Poll, shows the American people are strongly... Continue Reading

By Sarah Reinhardt, Union of Concerned Scientists Months behind schedule, two federal departments have officially kicked off the process for writing the 2020-2025 iteration of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Updated and reissued every five years, these guidelines are the... Continue Reading

By Environment America We know too little about the interaction of species and their effects on each other within ecosystems. What we do know is fascinating. For instance, check out this National Geographic video about how wolves changed rivers, as peculiar as that sounds. We... Continue Reading

By Shanna Devine, Public Citizen Today more than 61,000 individuals called on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to establish protections for workers who are exposed to extreme heat. The grassroots petition was organized by Public Citizen, United Farm... Continue Reading

By Olga Naidenko and Sydney Evans, Environmental Working Group Residents of communities near industrial-scale hog farms in North Carolina face an increased risk of potentially deadly diseases, Duke University scientists reported in a study released this week. Researchers found... Continue Reading

By Victor Flatt, Center for Progressive Reform On August 23, 2017, Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of emergency as Hurricane Harvey approached the Texas Coast. That state of emergency was ultimately expanded to 60 counties in Texas. Emergency declarations in Texas (as... Continue Reading

By Marc Boom, Natural Resources Defense Council During the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh, there were a number of firework moments that left many wondering how candid the judge was being about his record. Kavanaugh continued in this form... Continue Reading

By Sarah Graddy and Robert Coleman, Environmental Working Group This summer, EWG is tracking outbreaks of potentially toxic algae across the U.S. We have been startled to find that these outbreaks are erupting everywhere: from the East Coast to the West Coast, from the Great... Continue Reading

By Steve Suppan, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former director of strategy, aimed to “deconstruct the administrative state.” The means of deconstruction are by now a familiar litany: Eliminating or not filling administrative... Continue Reading

By Elly Pepper, Natural Resources Defense Council Today NRDC and our partners sent a Notice of Intent letter (NOI) to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) asking it to respond to our petition to list giraffes as an endangered species. If they don’t respond within 60 day... Continue Reading

By Jessica Knoblauch, Earthjustice People in the southeastern U.S. are facing life threatening winds and rains from Hurricane Florence. Less obvious, but also of great concern, is the public health threat posed by a variety of contaminated sites located around the region. These... Continue Reading

By Ed Mierzwinski, U.S. PIRG You’re starting a new week, but ten years ago today a wild and crazy Wall Street-induced lost weekend didn’t end. A decade of unhinged Wall Street risk-taking unleashed on consumers, homebuyers and communities had come to a head. The weekend... Continue Reading

By Free Press We’ve always been big fans of Jeopardy, but never in our most outlandish fantasies did we imagine that we’d become part of the show. But that’s exactly what happened last night. The category: “Principles.” The answer, worth $800, was this: “freepress.net is a... Continue Reading

By Daniel Raichel, Natural Resources Defense Council So here’s an all too familiar story—as the rest of the world moves to address a global environmental crisis, the Trump EPA does… nothing. That’s exactly what happened last month when, after Europe and Canada moved to... Continue Reading

By Andrew Rosenberg, Union of Concerned Scientists The primary task of the US Environmental Protection Agency is to protect public health and the environment. To do so, the agency must ensure that everyone, whether in the private sector or in government, complies with o... Continue Reading

By Valerie Baron and Becky Hammer, Natural Resources Defense Council As the residents of frontline communities in North Carolina and others in the southeastern U.S. brace for the impact of Hurricane Florence, our thoughts are with the people in the storm’s path whose health and... Continue Reading

By Jonna Hamilton, Union of Concerned Scientists The issue of glider trucks, new truck bodies with old polluting engines, has come up in Congress yet again.  This time, it moves over to the House Science Committee, a place where Chairman Lamar Smith tends to ha... Continue Reading

By David Doniger, Natural Resources Defense Council As leaders meet in California for the Global Climate Action Summit to mark new state, local, and business commitments to curb climate-changing pollution, the odd-men-out in the Trump Administration took another step backwards,... Continue Reading

By Sally Hardin, Center for American Progress Since taking over as acting administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June 2018, Andrew Wheeler has followed in the footsteps of disgraced former Administrator Scott Pruitt—especially when it comes to prioritizing... Continue Reading

By Lauren Urbanek, Natural Resources Defense Council Hotels, offices, stores and other commercial spaces across the U.S. are reaping benefits from new energy efficiency standards taking effect this year, one of which is the largest ever set by the Department of Energy (DOE).... Continue Reading

By Andrew Linhardt, Sierra Club Instead of protecting our climate and protecting our air clean, our health, and our communities, Donald Trump and his Dirty Deputies Andrew Wheeler and Heidi King are siding with their friends in corporate boardrooms across the country. Earlier... Continue Reading

By Grant Smith, Environmental Working Group The Trump administration’s latest idea to “bring back coal” is to let individual states decide how – or even whether – to cut air pollution from coal-burning power plants. The plan is meant to encourage electric utilities to invest in... Continue Reading

By Deborah Berkowitz, National Employment Law Project When a vibrant 40-year-old animal trainer was killed by a whale at SeaWorld in 2010, the government’s safety agency, an administrative law judge, and a panel of appellate judges all agreed that SeaWorld broke the law by not... Continue Reading

By Liz Butler, Friends of the Earth Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s pick for the Supreme Court, finished his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. While the Democrats did a great job trying to hold his feet to the fire, Kavanaugh ducked and dodged questions on... Continue Reading

By Ana Unruh Cohen, Natural Resources Defense Council In a Congressional hearing, all questions are asked for a reason. Who asks what question can be as interesting as the answer itself. So it caught my attention when early in Wednesday’s hearing Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch asked... Continue Reading

By James Goodwin, Center for Progressive Reform Today, 18 CPR Member Scholars and staff sent a letter to Sen. Elizabeth Warren expressing their support for her recently introduced bill, the Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity Act, in particular its provisions to reform the... Continue Reading

By Erik Olson and Anna Reade, Natural Resources Defense Council The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment invited Erik to testify at a hearing today on how the Environmental Protection Agency is handling the challenge of PFAS contamination. PFAS are the new PCBs,... Continue Reading

By Frank Gattie, National Employment Law Project “Eight hours labor, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest.” That slogan was first voiced two centuries ago. Faced with low pay, unsafe conditions, and grueling hours, the work-life balance proposed by early labor reformers... Continue Reading

By Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group One reason to think twice before confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the critical open swing seat on the Supreme Court is his long record of adopting extreme views to defend polluters. A close review of Kavanaugh’s record as a judge on the... Continue Reading

By Holly Burke, League of Conservation Voters Today we heard the opening remarks of Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearing, and starting tomorrow will be the only opportunity for Senators to publicly question Kavanaugh’s record, philosophy, and commitment to fairness... Continue Reading

By Michael Ong, Carla Burns, Tasha Stoiber and David Andrews, Environmental Working Group The family of fluorinated compounds known as PFAS chemicals includes more than 4,700 chemicals – some linked to cancer, thyroid disease, weakened immunity and developmental defects, and... Continue Reading

By Sally Greenberg, National Consumers League Mesothelioma is a rare cancer that affects the lining of the lungs, heart, and abdomen. More than 50,000 people have died from this disease and other asbestos-related conditions in the last decade, and about 3,000 new cases are... Continue Reading

By Jacob Carter, Union of Concerned Scientists The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) rushed a scientific assessment on the endangered American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus) in Nebraska, seemingly because the agency didn’t want to disrupt agribusiness. Two biologists... Continue Reading

By Lauren Urbanek, Natural Resources Defense Council With the Trump administration slowing progress on energy-saving efficiency standards for appliances, equipment, and electronics that save Americans billions of dollars, states are stepping in to try to fill the gap. So far this... Continue Reading

By Charise Johnson, Union of Concerned Scientists The Trump Administration is threatening species, land conservation, and human health and wellbeing by rolling back our health, safety, and environmental protections. This time the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the... Continue Reading

By Bruce Ho, Natural Resources Defense Council The Trump Environmental Protection Agency’s recent proposal to gut federal climate standards for power plants not only threatens to increase pollution and kill Americans, but would also impose pointless new administrative burdens on... Continue Reading

By Matt Shudtz, Center for Progressive Reform Today, D.C. Circuit Court Judge and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh begins his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Despite the disturbing lack of transparency around his service to the country during the... Continue Reading

By Jennifer Sass, Natural Resources Defense Council For makers of pesticides, it’s both the best of times and the worst of times. On the one hand, industry’s buddies in the Trump administration are doing all they can to turn a blind eye to the dangers of these toxic substances,... Continue Reading

By Shanna Devine, Public Citizen Presidential candidate Donald Trump promised, “under a Trump Presidency, the American worker will finally have a president who will protect them and fight for them.” This Labor Day, a year and a half into Trump’s term, that claim is utterly... Continue Reading

By Ana Unruh Cohen, Natural Resources Defense Council Unless something extraordinary happens, Chairman Chuck Grassley will gavel to order the Senate Judiciary hearings on Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court next Tuesday. Weather forecasters are predicting a... Continue Reading

By Elizabeth Tang, National Women’s Law Center Betsy DeVos is at it again. On Wednesday, the New York Times published a leaked draft of the Department of Education’s proposed Title IX regulations on sexual harassment and violence. Remarkably, DeVos’s draft regulations are... Continue Reading

By Ken Kimmell, Union of Concerned Scientists The confirmation fight over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh begins next week with a hearing on Tuesday. Supporters and opponents are drawing battle lines over crucial issues such as abortion, health care, immigration, and... Continue Reading