Our Work
CSS believes that a sound system of regulatory safeguards is essential for a functional democracy and the protection of the public interest. Regulations keep our food, air, and water clean, our workplaces and household products safe, and set a level playing field for the people living in the United States.
Powerful, moneyed special interests are working with sympathetic politicians and judges to roll back public interest protections, tie the hands of federal agencies, and cut funding for enforcement of important rules already in place. These attacks target not only our nation’s landmark regulatory safeguards but also the role of government as a protector of our environment, workers, families, and vulnerable communities.
In recent years, special interests have attacked federal protections via:
- Court decisions that upend constitutional checks and balances, sabotage the rulemaking process, weaken federal agencies, gut enforcement, strike down both existing and proposed rules, and suspend urgently needed protections during years-long litigation;
- Legislation that would make it harder for federal agencies to protect the public and would give corporate lobbyists unfair advantages;
- Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions that void recently finalized regulatory protections;
- Dishonest and misleading congressional hearings and investigations;
- Poison pill policy riders attached to annual federal spending bills that delay, block, or repeal regulatory safeguards and executive orders;
- Cost-benefit analysis that discounts or altogether ignores the benefits of regulating;
- Corporations providing regulators with false or misleading information;
- Lobbying against proposed rules by taking advantage of the lack of transparency and deadlines at the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs;
- Appointment of revolving-door regulators who put corporate profits ahead of protecting the public;
- PR campaigns attacking good regulators for trying to do their jobs; and
- Funding cuts to federal agencies that protect the American people.
We are committed to offering a sustained response to the various and multifaceted attacks on public interest protections while promoting ways to strengthen these vital safeguards and encourage sound enforcement.