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Thursday, January 18, 2007

President Bush Amends Rulemaking Process

This afternoon, President Bush announced amendments to Executive Order 12866 on Regulatory Planning and Review. EO 12866, originally issued by President Clinton, places the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) squarely in the middle of agencies' rulemaking process.

President Bush's amendments go even further in allowing the White House to force its own agenda on agencies. The most notable of the new amendments:

Impose a market failure criterion where agencies had previously been able to regulate based upon identification of threats to public welfare.
Force agencies to install presidential appointees as their intra-agency regulatory heads.
Force agency "guidance documents" (recommendations that clarify provisions in regulations) to go through the same OMB-micromanaged process as regulations do.

Ultimately, these amendments establish President Bush's anti-regulatory agenda, and make it more difficult for agencies to fulfill their role as protectors of the public.

Posted by Matt Madia, 05:40:08 PM

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

EPA Takes Positive Action on Pressure-treated Lumber

Monday, EPA rejected calls from industry to allow the use of a chromium based substance in pressure-treated lumber. The chemical, acid copper chromate (ACC), contains a known carcinogen, hexavalent chromium. This decision is a continuation of a positive trend EPA began in 2004 when the agency banned arsenic from pressure-treated lumber.

Kudos to citizens and public interest groups such as Environmental Working Group who called for the ban on ACC; and thanks to EPA for preserving the safety of a product so common in our everyday lives.

Read Washington Post coverage of the issue here.

Posted by Matt Madia, 03:19:31 PM

Monday, January 08, 2007

8 Year Stall on Worker Protections Might Come to An End
In March of 1999, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration proposed an uncontroversial—and long overdue—regulation that would require employers to pay for personal protective equipment, including eye goggles, work gloves, and fall gear, for employees, many of whom go without protective gear rather than pay for it out of pocket. The rule was already in its final stages when Bush came into office, but in 2004, OSHA reopened the comment period—five years after the original rule was proposed. Two-and-a-half years later, and eight years after the rule was first proposed, tens of thousands of workers are still forced to pay for their own equipment or go without.

Now the AFL-CIO and the United Food and Commercial Workers unions have filed suit to force OSHA to finish the rulemaking. "Nothing is standing in the way of OSHA issuing a final PPE rule to protect worker safety and health except the will to do so. It is long overdue that the agency take action on protective equipment. Now, we are asking the courts to force OSHA to act," said Joseph Hansen, UFCW International President.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 11:28:44 PM

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

An Unimpressive Century of Food Safety

This week marks the 100th Anniversary of the implementation of the Pure Food and Drug Act, a landmark piece of legislation calling for federal inspection of food products and paving the way for the creation of the Food and Drug Administration. However, as a January 2 New York Times editorial points out, advances in food safety are far from adequate considering how much time has elapsed.

Though nearly a century had passed, 2006 may have been the nadir of the federal food safety era. A spinach contamination outbreak in the fall killed three, and mysterious Taco Bell food poisonings only aggravated national concern. The Times editorial points out that anti-government conservatism has been a contributing factor in the declining safety:

Since the Reagan era, conservatives have tried to turn "government regulation" into an epithet…Food safety has been particularly hard-hit by this anti-regulatory climate.

The Times is calling for the new Congress to "hold hearings to get to the bottom of those recent food disasters and to explore what the next ones are likely to be." Here's to hoping the 110th puts food safety on its legislative plate.

Posted by Matt Madia, 11:12:31 AM

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