Regs Talk: The CSS Blog
Blogs are authored by CSS members and policy experts, and have been reprinted with permission.
The SEC Sends Its Regrets
By Bartlett Naylor, Public Citizen Given that Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently proposed to reduce the disclosures that companies must provide to investors– even though those same investors are clamoring for additional information about companies– we took it upon ourselves to read between the lines and translate what the SEC’s Chair, Jay Clayton, is really saying to stockholders: […]
Clean Water Case at Supreme Court Could Have Ripple Effects Across Country
By Maggie Caldwell, Earthjustice In late 2014, residents of the small town of Belton in Anderson County, South Carolina, noticed something amiss as they readied for the holidays. The plants along a rural stretch of road were unexpectedly dying. On Christmas Eve, someone walking along that same country road reported to local authorities the strong […]
Let HUD Give Survivors of Domestic Violence Fewer Protections from Housing Discrimination? Not in This House!
By Elizabeth Skerry, National Women’s Law Center October is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Unfortunately, Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has proposed a rule, entitled, “HUD’s Implementation of the Fair Housing Act’s Disparate Impact Standard,” that will harm survivors of domestic violence, most of whom are women. The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, disability, familial status, or […]
Trick or Treat? 5 Ways the USDA Secretary Has Pranked Us
By Karen Perry Stillerman, Union of Concerned Scientists It’s fun when little kids put on costumes and pretend to be things they’re not. It’s less fun when high-ranking government officials disguise their true identities and intentions. The Trump administration is rife with officials who pose as public servants but are actually swamp creatures—doing the bidding of […]
Report: Monarchs, Other Species Endangered by Pesticides
By Sylvia Fallon, Natural Resources Defense Council Each year, the Endangered Species Coalition highlights ten species that are facing a particular kind of threat. This year that threat is pesticides. From frogs to owls to whales to bats, pesticides endanger species across the globe. This year’s report features the monarch butterfly, threatened by the widespread […]
Congress Lifts Voices of Communities Affected by Trump Administration’s Attacks on Science
By Jacob Carter, Union of Concerned Scientists On October 30th, the United for Climate and Environmental Justice Task Force and House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ-3) will host a briefing that will lift the voices of underserved communities who have long been affected by the government’s sidelining of science. Led by Congressman Don McEachin (D-VA-4), Congresswoman […]
Report: When the Trump Administration Sidelines Science, Underserved Communities Face the Worst Consequences
By Anita Desikan, Union of Concerned Scientists As a public health researcher and a woman of color, I am acutely aware that in the United States some people live in communities which are afforded more science-based protections, allowing them to breath cleaner air, drink cleaner water, eat more nutritious food, and work at safer workplaces. […]
PFAS Contamination Is an Equity Issue, and President Trump’s EPA Is Failing to Fix It
By Genna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists We have a big national PFAS contamination problem. PFAS—per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances—are a class of man-made chemicals that are used in a variety of products to repel water and grease, including firefighting foam, nonstick cookware, and food packaging. These chemicals have been linked to health effects including various forms of cancer, […]
90 Years After the Crash of ’29, Markets Are Once Again at Risk
By Barbara Roper, Consumer Federation of America On October 29, 1929, the U.S. stock market capped a week of jitters by plunging another 12 percent in market value, panicking investors and ushering in a period of economic devastation unmatched in the United States before or since. Ninety years later, the very agency that was created […]
Taking a Stand Against the Trump EPA’s Latest Rollback
By Rebecca Stoner, Sierra Club Trump’s EPA is trying to sneak through a rollback of popular, commonsense controls on methane pollution. (And we do mean popular: Even many oil and gas companies support them). They held just one public hearing on October 17 in Dallas, Texas. But the Sierra Club, along with numerous national and […]
Rocket Fuel Chemical Doesn’t Belong in Food Packaging
By Natural Resources Defense Council NRDC and partners took legal action to overturn the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision to allow the harmful chemical perchlorate to be used in food packaging. “Perchlorate harms kids, and it’s all over our food supply,” says Erik D. Olson, senior strategic director for health and food at NRDC. “The FDA has […]
As New Study Shows Smog’s Deadly Effects, Court Orders EPA to Protect Public
By Robyn Winz, Earthjustice Emphysema is commonly known as a “smoker’s disease.” Yet a recent study shows that merely living in a smoggy place puts you at higher risk for this lung condition. Instead of working to protect millions of people from the harms of dirty air, the EPA has decided not to do anything […]
Diverse Support for Hopeful, Bold Electric Vehicle Proposal
By Luke Tonachel, Natural Resources Defense Council It’s refreshing to hear leaders in Congress talk of big plans to cut pollution from transportation. When that plan is supported from auto industry workers, environmentalists, and car manufacturers, I’m hopeful that new federal leadership can deliver the policies we need to protect our health from air pollution […]
Trump’s Refusal of Care Rule: We Took Him to Court, Here’s What You Need to Know
By Rachel Easter and Michelle Banker, National Women’s Law Center On Friday, NWLC was back in court challenging another Trump Administration rule meant to make it harder for people to get reproductive health care. This time we’re part of a legal team challenging a rule that would allow basically any person remotely involved in health […]
The First Cut (of EPA Advisory Committees) Is the Deepest
By Genna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists Today, EPA announced that as a result of the President’s short-sighted and misguided executive order issued by President Trump in June, it was cutting two committees: the Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board (ELAB) and the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT). Both of these committees have been utilized by the […]
A Little-Known Agency That Is Supposed to Protect Workers Is Instead Eroding Workers’ Basic Labor Rights
By Lora Engdahl, Economic Policy Institute Donald Trump ran for president promising to uplift workers. But his actions have done the exact opposite. According to a new EPI report, Trump appointees on the board of a small, independent agency called the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)—and the NLRB’s Trump-appointed general counsel (GC)—are working hard to undermine […]
PFAS Exposure May Increase Risk of Breast Cancer
By Melanie Benesh, Environmental Working Group October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month – as you may have noticed from the annual explosion of pink products claiming to fund breast cancer research. However, as the group Breast Cancer Action points out, companies that make products containing the toxic fluorinated substances known as PFAS, like 3M and DuPont, shouldn’t […]
Computer Chip Defects Force Consumers to Choose Between Speed and Security
By John Breyault, National Consumers League October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month! Since the first observation of this month 15 years ago, the world has gone from about 800 million Internet users to approximately 4.5 billion. Over that same period of time, there has been an extensive amount of time and energy dedicated to improving cybersecurity and cyber […]
The President’s Latest Senseless Executive Order on Regulations Undermines Public Protection
By Andrew Rosenberg, Union of Concerned Scientists President Trump issued another set of Executive Orders this month claiming to make the regulatory process more transparent and “fairer” to Americans. It does neither. In fact, the whole narrative that federal agencies have “stealth” regulations, hidden away from the public, only to be seen when an EPA staff member […]
Trump’s Offshore Drilling Plan Would Be an Environmental Disaster
By Margaret Cooney and Mary Ellen Kustin, Center for American Progress In 2018, the Trump administration put forward a highly controversial plan to expand offshore drilling off the U.S. Pacific and Atlantic coasts, the west coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico, and Alaska. Though this drilling proposal has been delayed as a result of litigation, […]