Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
Quick Thoughts About NAM’s Hyperbolic Report on Smog
by Frank O’Donnell, President, Clean Air Watch I know few of us are thinking about smog on a day like this. But I see that the good people of NAM are – out with yet another hyperbolic report about the alleged impact of cleaning up the air. http://www.nam.org/ozone/ As you can see, NAM has produced […]
Industry-Backed Study Exaggerates Regulatory Costs, Ignores Benefits
What are the costs and benefits of the safeguards that protect Americans from big polluters, predatory lenders and junk food giants? It’s not an unusual question, but you won’t get a fair answer in a new report published this morning by the American Action Forum (AAF) – a front group for corporate interests headed by […]
The Benefits of Public Protections: Ten Rules That Save Lives and Protect the Environment
Protecting the public from harmful products and services is an important role of the American government. But regulators struggle to achieve this goal as they encounter relentless push-back from industry lobbyists trying to weaken or kill rules. Most media coverage of public protections focuses on Industry complaints about the cost of new standards (without any […]
The Truth in Settlements Act: A Good First Step Toward Ending the Tax Deduction for Corporate Fines and Settlements
(This post originally appeared the blog of the Center for Effective Government) By Scott Klinger | July 29, 2014 *Note: The Truth in Settlements Act was reported out of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee on Wednesday. When corporations commit fraud or have an accident that threatens human health or damages the environment, they pay […]
Four Years After Dodd-Frank
Six years ago in September, following a decade of under-regulation, reckless Wall Street practices crashed our economy. Two years later, in July 2010, Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Since then, the process of turning the financial reform legislation into implementable law has frequently been stalled. Armies of well-financed lobbyists […]
Hide No Harm Act: Why We Need Corporate Accountability
A new piece of legislation introduced this week by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) would ensure that corporate executives who knowingly market life-threatening products or continue unsafe business practices are held criminally responsible when people die or are injured. Under the Hide No Harm Act, key corporate managers will be required by law to report serious […]
U.S. Chamber: You Are Wrong
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups sure do kick and scream when any new major safeguard to protect the environment, worker safety, or consumers is being proposed. Their oft-repeated mantra about the impacts of regulation, however, is “the sky is falling” rhetoric. The most recent example is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s […]
If Big Business Wrote a Letter to Santa Claus, This is What It Would Say
If Big Business wrote a bill to help itself get rid of regulations it didn’t like, what would that bill look like? We don’t have to guess anymore. This week, a group of legislators introduced the Regulatory Improvement Act, a bill designed to “improve” our nation’s regulatory system, remove “government bureaucracy and red tape,” and […]
The Real “Tsunami” in Federal Regulatory Policy
(This post originally appeared on CPRBlog, the blog of the Center for Progressive Reform) By Rena Steinzor, President of the Center for Progressive Reform | May 22, 2014 The federal regulatory system is in crisis. For the past several decades, a damaging set of mandates has continued to pile up on the books—mandates that threaten […]
Happy 5th Birthday, CARD Act!
As the CARD Act of 2009 turns five, consumers benefit from protection from predatory credit card companies Millions of credit card holders have benefited both from the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD Act), and the regulatory and enforcement authority of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which administers the law. […]
In Remembrance: Worker’s Memorial Day 2014
(Cross-posted from the Center for Effective Government Blog) by Katie Weatherford, 4/28/2014 April 28 is Worker’s Memorial Day, an international day for remembering workers who have been injured or killed as a result of on-the-job incidents or long-term occupational illnesses. On this day, we also celebrate the substantial progress made in protecting workers over the forty-plus […]
Celebrating Earth Week 2014
This Earth Week, we would like to take a moment to celebrate the public protections that have protected our environment and our health. It may be hard to imagine that before 1970, a factory could spew black clouds of toxic pollution into the air or dump tons of toxic waste into a nearby stream, and […]
U.S. Chemical Safety Board on Texas Fertilizer Disaster: Voluntary Compliance No Subsititute for an Efficient Regulatory System
“[T]here is no substitute for an efficient regulatory system that ensures that all companies are operating to the same high standards. We cannot depend on voluntary compliance alone.” That’s what Rafael Moure-Eraso, chairperson of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) said this week. The CSB, an independent federal investigative agency, was releasing its preliminary findings […]
One Year Later, West, Texas Fertilizer Explosion Disaster a Reminder of Need for Updated Safeguards
At a time when our nation’s system of safeguards and standards are constantly under attack, it’s up to us to stand up and protect them. Americans want to be protected from chemical companies using unsafe practices, from banks and lenders trying to use us to make a profit, from unsafe food and drugs, and more. […]
Anadarko: Just One Example of Corporations Getting a Refund for Their Crimes
Imagine a company that, for 85 years, polluted the environment by dumping harmful uranium, wood creosote, and rocket fuel waste (including on Native American land). That waste contaminated and sickened over 7,000 people. That company then paid $5.1 billion to resolve charges by the federal government. Then that very same government gave that company $550 […]
GM Cut Corners and People Died — Will Anyone Be Held Accoutable?
General Motors must be held accountable for negligence leading to the deaths of 13 drivers. We have now learned that GM could have avoided the faulty ignition switch issue if it had paid an extra 90 cents per car. GM and the responsible corporate officers at the company must be held accountable and face criminal penalties […]
Analyze Always, Regulate Never
(Cross-posted from CitizenVox, Public Citizen’s blog.) by Amit Narang and Bartlett Naylor After two years of studying the proposed Volcker Rule, with 20,000 comments from bankers and the public, hundreds of meetings with Wall Street lobbyists, and 18 months past the rule’s congressionally mandated deadline for enactment, we’re now being told by the American Action […]
The SCRUB Act: Another Anti-Regulatory Bill Targets Health, Safety and Environmental Protections
(Cross-posted from the The Fine Print, the Center for Effective Government’s blog) by Katie Weatherford, February 18, 2014 On Feb. 11, the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial, and Antitrust Law held a hearing on yet another anti-regulatory bill that attempts to undermine our nation’s important health, safety, and environmental protections. The bill, entitled the […]
Senator Tester Says USDA Should Put the Brakes on Controversial Poultry Inspection Rule
Senator Jon Tester of Montana has expressed his concerns to the administration. In a recent letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, Senator Tester wrote: “Without adequate scientific analysis to ensure the new process improves the safety of poultry slaughter and evisceration plants, it is premature to propose a rule that would standardize these practices across […]
Consumer Protections at Stake in Trans-Atlantic “Trade” Deal
A “trade” deal only in name, the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) would require the United States and European Union (EU) to conform domestic food and product safety standards, financial regulations, climate policies, data privacy protections and other non-trade policies to TAFTA rules – rules that are being negotiated in secret. Some products and services […]