Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
CPR Member Scholars Call on Congress to Reject ‘Unnecessary’ and ‘Unwise’ REINS Act
By James Goodwin, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Progressive Reform Yesterday morning, the House Judiciary Committee is holding a markup on the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2015, or REINS Act (H.R. 427). Even among the many extreme anti-regulatory bills that Congress has considered this session, the REINS Act still […]
Former Supplement Officials Regulate Supplements at FDA
Meet the New Snake Oil, Same as the Old Snake Oil By Michael Jacobson, Executive Director, Center for Science in the Public Interest During the administration of President Woodrow Wilson, government investigators performed laboratory tests of Clark Stanley’s Snake Oil Liniment — a potion supposedly made of rattlesnake oil that offered “immediate relief” for rheumatism, sciatica, sprains, […]
FDA Food Ingredient Approval Process Violates Law, Says CSPI
Flawed ‘GRAS’ System Lets Novel Chemicals Into Food Supply Without FDA Safety Review by the Center for Science in the Public Interest Consumers are being exposed to potentially dangerous chemicals that industry self-certifies as safe for use in foods, with little or no scrutiny from the Food and Drug Administration, according to the Center for […]
Defeating the Public Interest One Bill at a Time: The ALERT Act (H.R. 1759)
By James Goodwin, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Progressive Reform Background: Tomorrow, the full House Judiciary Committee will be holding a markup of the H.R. 1759, the All Economic Regulations are Transparent Act of 2015 (ALERT Act), sponsored by Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tex.). The House of Representatives considered a similar bill during its last session. […]
Annual Energy Outlook 2015: EIA Consistently Lowballs Renewables, Undercuts Climate Change Efforts
By John Rogers, Senior Energy Analyst, Union of Concerned Scientists The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration is about to publish its annual best guess as to what the future will hold, energy-wise. But if the past is any guide, their best guess is likely to lowball renewable energy’s potential contribution. That has real […]
Fast Track to Lost Jobs and Lower Wages
By Robert E. Scott, Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy Research, EPI This week, Senator Hatch will reportedly introduce “fast track” (trade promotion authority) legislation in the Senate, to help President Obama complete the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade and investment deal with eleven other countries in Asia and the Americas. “Fast Track” authority would […]
Access Denied? A Survey of Science Writers Sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists and the Union of Concerned Scientists
By Deborah Bailin, Democracy Analyst, Center for Science and Democracy, Union of Concerned Scientists Earlier this year, the Center for Science and Democracy published a report on media policies at 17 federal agencies. More than four years after the Obama administration had issued a directive ordering reform of federal scientific integrity policies—including those governing media […]
Why “Fast Track” Can Sidetrack Both Science and Democracy
By Celia Wexler, Senior Washington Representative, Center for Science and Democracy, Union of Concerned Scientists Congress soon will be voting on whether to approve Trade Promotion Authority, or fast-track, a process that expedites approval of trade deals but at the expense of democratic discourse and public and congressional scrutiny and oversight. Fast-track had dubious benefits […]
EPA Report Shows Automakers are Exceeding Historic Vehicle Standards
By Jesse Prentice-Dunn, Responsible Trade Program, Sierra Club Last week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its report card on how automakers complied with historic vehicle standards in 2013. These vehicle standards will cut average vehicle emissions to 163 grams of carbon dioxide per mile in 2025, equivalent to 54.5 miles per gallon. The key […]
Protecting Clean Water: A Dirty Job, But Someone’s Gotta Do It
By Kristen Wolf, Owner of Windhaven Farms Raising animals can be a dirty job, in more ways than one. Windhaven Farms is a local meat distribution company. We sell beef, pork chicken and rabbits to restaurants in the Kansas City area, and each animal is sourced from a specific farm. We focus on the animals […]
EPA Analysis of FracFocus Data Shows We Still Know Far Too Little About Fracking Chemicals
By Matthew McFeeley, Staff Attorney, Land & Wildlife Program, Natural Resources Defense Council On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency released a report analyzing data from FracFocus.org. The report provides the most complete look we’ve gotten to date at the chemicals used in fracking fluids and the amount of water used. But most of all, the […]
The Sky Is Not Falling: FDA Proposes Common-Sense Treatment of Generic Drugs
By Frank Ackerman, Member Scholar, Center for Progressive Reform There must be a global template for business complaints about regulation, located on some secret right-wing server. Just type in the industry and the name of the regulation: Billions of dollars are at stake, companies will be driven out of the industry and consumers will lose […]
Top 10 Reasons Why States Should Ignore Senator McConnell’s “Just Say No” Advice on Carbon Pollution
By David Doniger, Climate and Clean Air Program Director, Natural Resources Defense Council Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) recently penned an op-ed and a letter to governors urging states to refuse to cooperate with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan to cut dangerous carbon pollution from power plants under. Governors aren’t rushing to […]
The Proposed Payday Regulations Are a Good First Step, But More Needs to Be Done
By Sean McElwee, Research Associate, Demos The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released a blueprint for new regulations pertaining to payday loans and car title loans. The regulations will not include an interest rate cap, the holy grail for advocates, because industry allies watered-down the provisions (I discuss the fight over payday lending in my […]
The Polluters’ Flawed Arithmetic in the EPA’s Hazardous Air Pollution Rule
By James Goodwin, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Progressive Reform In the run-up to this morning’s oral arguments before the Supreme Court on the Environmental Protection Agency’s rule to limit hazardous air pollutants from fossil-fueled power plants—and indeed throughout the oral arguments themselves—opponents repeatedly pointed out that the benefits of the rule in reducing mercury […]
A 300-Foot High Fireball from an Exploding Bakken Oil Train: When Will New Rail Safety Standards Be Approved?
By Amanda Frank, Policy Analyst, Citizen Health and Safety, Center for Effective Government Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced legislation today that would create stronger crude-by-rail safeguards than those currently under review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Among other things, the Cantwell-Baldwin bill would require the Pipeline and Hazardous […]
OSHA Rejects Petition to Better Protect Poultry Workers
by Matt Shudtz, Executive Director, Center for Progressive Reform Last week, workers’ advocates at the Southern Poverty Law Center and Nebraska Appleseed got the official word that OSHA will not develop new regulations to protect the men and women who do the dirty work of turning clucking chickens into boneless cutlets. It’s an industry where […]
Corporate Congress Holds Budget ‘Vote-o-Rama’
By Angela Bradbery, Communications Director, Public Citizen Expect quite the spectacle this week in the Corporate Congress. On Thursday and Friday, the U.S. Senate is holding a “vote-o-rama,” in which senators will weigh in on hundreds of budget amendments introduced in rapid succession. Although the chances of any of these making it into law are […]
Federal Fracking Rules Imminent — Clean Water, Wild Places Must Trump Oil & Gas Industry Interests
by Amy Mall, Senior Policy Analyst, National Resources Defense Council March 11, 2015 In late February, U.S. Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell said that publication of the Bureau of Land Management’s new rules for fracking on the nation’s public lands would be “soon.” Such rules are long overdue — its been decades since they have […]
CPR Senior Policy Analyst James Goodwin Testifies on Regulation for the House Committee on Small Business
On Wednesday, Center for Progressive Reform’s Senior Policy Analyst James Goodwin testified as an expert witness on the regulatory process at a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business hearing titled, “Tangled in Red Tape: New Challenges for Small Manufacturers.” Goodwin’s testimony highlights the economic as well as public health and safety benefits of […]