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Monday, August 29, 2005

OIRA meets on animal feed rule
OIRA met with animal feed associations and cattle associations from both the U.S. and Canada to discuss substances prohibited in animal feed. Loopholes in the mad cow disease regulations allow cow parts to be fed back to cows in animal feed products, thereby potentially spreading the disease among cows. This meeting is one of several recently held by OIRA on mad cow-related topics. The agency also recently met with industry over substances prohibited in human food products as well as on the prohibition of specified-risk materials.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 11:17:47 AM

Friday, August 26, 2005

Paralysis by Analysis: Snowmobiles in Yellowstone
A New York Times op-ed examines the Bush administration's decision to authorize a fourth study of the environmental impact of snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park, despite the wealth of scientific information already available:

Since 1996, there have been three major official assessments of snowmobiles' impact on the park in winter. Two of those were done during the Bush administration. Now a fourth major study has been authorized; it is to be completed by 2007, when the current three-year plan for winter use comes to an end. This new study will cost $2 million to $3 million - for a park that is annually underfinanced by nearly $23 million. There is only one conceivable reason for this study. It's part of the tried and true methodology of the Bush administration: if you don't like the results the first time, do it again and change the definitions so you do get the results you like.

Read more about the snowmobile controversy: Court Rejects Ban on Snowmobiles in Yellowstone

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 11:42:38 AM

Thursday, August 25, 2005

OIRA meeting with Rendering, Feed Industry
OIRA met on Aug. 23 to discuss substances prohibited in human food with rendering industry representatives including the National Renderers Association, Valley Proteins, Kaluzny Bros. and Griffin Industries, Inc. Rendering is "the process of transforming waste from the meat industry into useable products for animal feeds and technical use," according to the NRA website. OIRA met over the same rule on Aug. 24 with the American Feed Industry Association.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 10:26:09 AM

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

OIRA Meeting on EPA Rules

On Aug 2, OIRA, EPA and SBA met with the Natural Resources Defense Council over EPS's Pretreatment Streamlining Rule.
OIRA and EPA met with the Halogenated Solvents Industry Alliance (HSIA) on July 27 to discuss dry cleaners residual risk.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 02:30:54 PM

OIRA Meeting on Mad Cow Disease
OIRA met with the North American National Casing Association on July 12 over the prohibition of specified-risk material for human food and the requirements for disposition of non-ambulatory cattle. Specified-risk material is the part of the cow most likely to transmit the mad cow disease prion. Currently regulation prohibits the use of specified-risk material in meat products. However, several loopholes to the regulation exist. Non-ambulatory cattle are essentially cattle that appear to be ill (i.e. they can't walk). Most of the cows that test positive for mad cow disease have been non-ambulatory. Read more on mad cow disease.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 02:29:54 PM

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Counting the Cost of Bush Reg "Reforms"
Interesting scholarly article reviewing the Bush administration's distortions of the regulatory process, particularly the "reforms" championed by OIRA head John Graham:

This article is a review of the regulatory process reforms championed by John Graham's OIRA. Rather than attempting to view them as pro-regulation or antiregulation, I believe it is more useful to ask to whom these various regulatory reforms give power in the regulatory process and whether or not they raise the cost of issuing a regulation. This paper will show that many of these reforms empower the President and those with access to the executive office of the President. Many also raise the cost of the regulatory process to agencies. The second of these impacts is clearly anti-regulatory in its results but the first is not necessarily so.
This article will argue for a more accurate criticism of the Graham reforms: that they will concentrate rulemaking power in a small group of elites. The reforms have further tipped the balance of power in regulatory policy toward powerful interest groups and away from agency bureaucrats, private individuals, and small businesses. While e-rulemaking in particular has been sold as opening up the regulatory process, it is being implemented in a way that is more likely to render the public comment process meaningless than to increase the impact of public involvement (Noveck 2004).

Download Stuart Shapiro, "An Evaluation of the Bush Administration Reforms to the Regulatory Process"

Posted by Robert Shull, 06:58:06 PM

OIRA meets over Black Carp Rule
Representatives from OIRA and Fish and Wildlife Services met with interested parties on July 7 to discuss a proposed rulemaking to add black carp (Mylopharyngodon piceus) to the list of injurious wildlife under the Lacey Act. Attendants included Paul Zajicek of the National Association of State Aquaculture Coordinators, Ted McNulty of the Arkansas Development Finance Authorities (representing fish farmers), Michael See of SBA's Office of Advocacy, Keith Gram of Alabama Farmers Federations (representing Alabama catfish producers), Hugh Warren of Catfish Farmers of America, and Carole Engle, professor of aquaculture economics and marketing at the University of Arkansas. OIRA representatives met again with a representative from the Fish and Wildlife Service to discuss the proposed rule on July 29.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 05:36:14 PM

OIRA Meetings with Industry, Senate

On Tuesday August 9, Microsoft lobbyists met with OIRA, Department of Labor and Department of Homeland Security administrators to discuss labor certification for permanent employment of aliens in the U.S.

Also on August 9, pesticide manufacturers Bayer CropScience and Crop Life America met with EPA and OIRA to discuss protections for test subjects in human research.

On Tuesday August 16, representatives from the Cement Kiln Recycling Coalition (CKRC) met with OIRA and EPA representatives over the "maximum achievable control technology" (MACT) standards for hazardous waste combustion.

On Thursday Aug. 18, representatives from OIRA and EPA met with Michele Nellenbach of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee over EPA's Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) proposed rule.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 03:06:28 PM

Friday, August 12, 2005

OIRA meets over MSHA Diesel Rule
OIRA and the Department of Labor met with representatives from the National Mining Association, FMC Corporation (a major chemical producer), as well as a lobbyist from Patton Boggs over the Mine Safety and Health Administration's diesel rule.

On June 6, MSHA published the Diesel Particulate Matter Exposure of Underground Metal and Nonmetal Miners Rule. The rule changes the way MSHA calculates diesel particulate matter emission limits in underground mines. According to the agency, the new calculations, based on permissible exposure limits measured by elemental carbon, are comparable to the former measurements, which measured limits based on total carbon emissions. In comments filed on behalf of the United Mine Workers of America, however, Advanced Technologies and Laboratories International senior scientist James Weeks points out that the new emissions standards are actually weaker than the older standards. By basing emission standards on elemental carbon rather than total carbon emissions, the new emissions standard will no longer capture the hundred of organic compounds combined with diesel particulate matter, many of which are carcinogenic.

The new regulation also contains other provisions that weaken the protection and could ultimately render the regulation impotent. Mines will be able to receive an unlimited number of one-year special extensions, administered by an MSHA district manager. Moreover, the new regulation now requires the agency to consider economic feasibility rather than just technical feasibility when considering special extensions for compliance with the rule. This new provision could open a floodgate of special extensions that will allow mines to avoid implementing the emissions standards altogether.

MSHA originally established the health standard using total carbon emissions on Jan. 19, 2001. Industry challenged the rule and organized labor intervened. The settlement agreement that followed required MSHA to promulgate a further series of rules addressing specific issues, including several that are addressed in this rulemaking. The new standard is an interim final rule. MSHA is required to create a more stringent standard in 2006, revising the concentration limit to 160 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

Read comments on the regulation by the United Mine Workers of America and the Center for Progressive Reform.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 03:14:53 PM

Thursday, August 11, 2005

The lobbying Roberts failed to disclose
Supreme Court nominee John Roberts explained his failure to disclose a lobbying contact on behalf of sunscreen makers by noting that he had considered the meeting an act of legal representation somehow distinct from lobbying, because the substance of his conversation with the administration was that the industry would litigate labeling requirements as a First Amendment problem.

Legal vs. lobbying? Consider what the Lobby Disclosure Act has to say about what constitutes a lobbying contact:

oral or written communication	check
made to a covered official	check: OMB and FDA leadership are "covered officials"
on behalf of a client	check: representing the industry
regarding federal legislation, federal rules or regulations, administration of a federal program or policy, or nomination or confirmation for an appointment requiring Senate confirmation	check: FDA's proposed sunscreen labeling regulations

Find out more about what constitutes lobbying here, courtesy of NPAction, a resource from OMB Watch to help nonprofits learn more about lobbying and other means of effective advocacy.

Posted by Robert Shull, 05:58:42 PM

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Hit List Update: Federal Motor Carriers
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has disclosed, in response to OMB Watch's FOIA request, internal correspondence reflecting the agency's position on two nominations for the White House's anti-regulatory hit list -- one regarding the rules restricting the hours of service that companies can force truck drivers to work, in particular for companies such as Wal-Mart that are not in the trucking industry itself; and the other, regarding surge brakes. There is also additional information about a HAZMAT rule, which is actually a RSPA rule rather than a FMCSA rule. Download the correspondence.

The hours-of-service response is ultimately rather empty: it reflects only that FMCSA is currently in court over the hours of service rules. Given that the administration is under court order to re-fashion the hours of service rules, there seems little reason for the administration to have endorsed revision of the HOS rules for the final hit list. Is the administration signalling its intention to issue revised rules that distinguish between long-haul trucking and local trucking -- or to create, essentially, a Wal-Mart exception to whatever are the final HOS rules?

The endorsement of the industry wish for FMCSA to allow surge brakes on certain trailers also seems unnecessary, given that the agency has already granted an industry petition for rulemaking on that very subject. This case underscores the redundancy and inefficiency of the OMB hit list project: industry does not need OMB as a middle man, because it can already petition the agencies directly for rulemaking. Also, the hit list process diverted agency resources to respond, even in cases in which the agency has already begun to act long before the hit list itself.

Posted by Robert Shull, 06:54:15 PM

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

OIRA Meets to Discuss Fuel Economy Reform
OIRA met with Environmental Defense and three members of its Council of Economic Advisors on Aug. 4 over Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) reform for light trucks.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 11:24:18 AM

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