Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
Congressional Mandates Obstructed, Public Pays the Price
On October 25, the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards co-sponsored Delayed, Diluted and Defunct: How Congressional Mandates are Thwarted by the Broken Regulatory Process, a briefing for Senate staff. The speakers presented a series of examples of congressional mandates for public protections that were or are stalled or weakened in the rulemaking process — from food safety […]
Six Month Anniversary of West, Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion
Today is the 6 month anniversary of the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion, a disaster that destroyed a community, claimed 15 lives, and injured over 160 others. The West Fertilizer Company supplied chemicals to farmers since it was founded in 1962, and was last inspected by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration in 1985. In […]
Advocates Oppose Poultry Modernization Rule: Food and Worker Safety Experts Unfurl 500,000 Signatues Outside White House Opposing a New USDA Regulation
On Thursday, September 26th, a coalition of food and worker safety advocates and allies rolled out the names of over 500,000 people opposing a rollback to the USDA poultry processing system that could increase food poisoning for American consumers and put workers at risk of serious harm. The press conference showcased a man in a […]
Obama Administration Issues Home Care Rule
Cross-posted from the Economic Policy Institute The U.S. Department of Labor issued final regulations today that extend minimum wage and overtime protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act to about two million previously excluded home care workers—personal care assistants for the frail elderly and the disabled, home health aides, and other direct support paraprofessionals working in the […]
SPLC Urges Federal Agencies to Protect Poultry, Meatpacking Plant Workers
Cross-posted from the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC and a coalition of civil rights groups filed a formal petition today urging the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to better protect workers in poultry and meatpacking plants, where federal policies allow workers to operate in hazardous […]
Happy 47th Anniversary to U.S. Auto Safety Law
The benefits of public protections for everyone are dramatically illustrated by U.S. auto safety law, and Sept. 9 marks the 47th anniversary of when those lifesaving standards were first enacted. On that day in 1966, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law theNational Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act and the Highway Safety Act. The legislation […]
Another Week, Another Ill-Considered Attempt to Undercut Regulations
This item, by Ross Eisenbrey, is cross-posted from Working Economics, the blog of the Economic Policy Institute. No week seems to go by without an imbalanced attack on regulatory protections by a trade association, a “think-tank,” a member of Congress, or a journalist. These attacks frequently feature a reference to the growth in the Code […]
When “Sound Science” Isn’t
This item, by Celia Wexler, is cross-posted from the Union of Concerned Scientists. “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” – George Orwell When I cited that quotation while speaking to a group of students last year, many of them had a hard […]
CPSIA Has Had a Big Impact Over the Last Five Years
This item is cross-posted from Consumer Reports. At a time when partisan gridlock seems to dominate the discussion in Washington, we at Consumers Union, the policy and adviocacy arm of Consumer Reports, think it’s important to celebrate bipartisan legislation that has made a real difference in the marketplace and the everyday lives of consumers. This […]
Five Important Reasons to Share on and Gather Data on Saferproducts.gov
The following Post is From Christine Hines From Public Citizen This month marks the fifth anniversary of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA), which provided a long overdue upgrade of critical safety protections for consumer products. The CPSIA revitalized the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and created the publicly available safety incident […]
Words from a Champion: Guest Blog by Congresswoman Schakowsky
The following post is from Congresswoman Schakowsky and originally appeared at kidsindanger.org Congresswoman Schakowsky joined KID and others to mark the fifth anniversary of this landmark safety bill. She offers these insights. This month we mark the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), the most significant product […]
Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act: Better Toy Standards For Our Kids
This week we are highlighting five breakthroughs gained in five years through the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). In 2007 and 2008, a series of toy recalls compelled Congress to respond by passing the most comprehensive upgrades to our network of consumer safeguards in decades. It was a bipartisan victory: in the House of […]
5 Years Later, Our Consumer Products Are Safer
5 years ago the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CSPIA) passed, sailing through the House of Representatives 407-0 . This law gives the Consumer Product Safety Commission the resources it needs to protect the public, establishes new standards for lead content in products designed for children, requires that children’s products are tested before they are […]
The Human Cost of Regulatory Delay
Too often, important regulations that would protect Americans from harm are stalled for months or years in a regulatory process that has become needlessly byzantine and slow, with very real costs for workers, consumers and the broader public August is a great time for outdoor gatherings. No one should have to worry about whether their […]
Obama’s Executive Order to Improve Chemical Safety Is Good First Step, But Further Action Needed
The following post is from Dorry Samuels Levine at the National Council For Occupational Safety and Health President Must Enact Regulations, Increase OSHA Funding, To Adequately Protect Workers and Public President Barack Obama’s executive order today calling for increased collaboration between government agencies to improve chemical safety for workers and the public must be applauded. […]
Senate Hearing to Bring Some Sanity to the Debate Over Federal Regulatory Policy
The following post is from James Goodwin at the Center For Progressive Reform Tomorrow, a new panel in the Senate Judiciary Committee—the Subcommittee on Oversight, Federal Rights, and Agency Action—will bring some much-need sanity to the discussion of federal regulatory policy when it holds a hearing entitled “Justice Delayed: The Human Cost of Regulatory Paralysis.” What’s […]
The Bank Oligopoly Sucks Away Economic Value
The following post first appeared on U.S News and was written by Wallace Tuberville at Demos Without a doubt, the big banks should be broken up; the need is even more urgent than it was in 2007 or 2008. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas – hardly an Occupy Wall Street affiliate – titled its […]
Senate Confirms Cordray as Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director
The following post is from Katie Weatherford at the Center For Effective Government On July 16, the Senate voted 66-34 to confirm Richard Cordray to serve as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The CFPB was established by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) to put in place financial […]
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Safeguarding Main Street
This weekend marks the third anniversary of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank), legislation designed to prevent another financial disaster caused by the deregulation of Wall Street. One of the goals of Dodd-Frank was to safeguard consumers from predatory and abusive practices in the financial service industry. To take on this […]
President’s Spring Agenda Signals Continued Delays on New Rules
This post comes from the Center For Effective Government The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) quietly published its highly anticipated Spring 2013 Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions (Unified Agenda) on July 3. The spring agenda, like the previous fall agenda, does not show a strong commitment to advancing public […]