House Should Conduct Robust Oversight of Trump’s Anti-Safeguard Activities, CSS Says
Letter Urges Key Committees to Investigate Rulemaking Misconduct, Improper Corporate Influence, OIRA, Lax Enforcement
Contact: David Rosen, drosen@citizen.org, (202) 588-7742
Feb. 11, 2019
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House Judiciary and Oversight and Reform Committees should conduct robust oversight of the Trump administration’s anti-safeguard activities, the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards (CSS) said in a letter sent to the committee chairmen today. Under President Donald Trump, federal agencies have been acting in defiance of their statutory missions to advance his corporate-backed anti-safeguard agenda, CSS maintains. Potential avenues of inquiry ripe for congressional oversight include:
- Improper corporate influence over the regulatory process, including conflicts of interest arising from the revolving door between federal agencies and the industries they regulate;
- Trump lining his own pockets through deregulation;
- The drop-off in enforcement actions and penalties against corporate lawbreakers;
- The manipulation of cost-benefit analysis to align with Trump’s political goals;
- Attacks on science and evidence-based decision-making in the rulemaking process;
- Courts overturning an astonishing 90 percent of the administration’s deregulatory actions;
- Activities of the U.S. Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which have not been subject to routine congressional oversight since the beginning of the administration;
- The dubious legality of Trump’s “2-for-1” deregulatory executive order; and
- The harmful impacts of deregulation, inadequate regulation and regulatory delay on workers, consumers and families, as well as our economy, environment and democracy.
“Over the past two years, this administration has engaged in dangerous and often illegal attacks on science-based safeguards that protect hard-working Americans and our families. Not only have these attacks on public protections recklessly endangered public health and safety, they will leave regulatory agencies created to protect the public less able to fulfill their missions in the future,” the letter reads.
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