Earlier this year, NHTSA was set to require a pressure sensor in each tire that could alert the driver of an under-inflated tire through a dashboard monitor, as shown in the picture below. Then in stepped John Graham, administrator of OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

NHTSA estimates that hundreds of people die each year as a result of under-inflated tires. Yet in rejecting NHTSA's standard, Graham argued for another standard, which though less protective, would be less costly, and according to Graham, would encourage anti-lock brakes, resulting in greater overall fatality benefits.

However, the author of the study on which Graham based his conclusions on anti-lock brakes recently told NHTSA that Graham was "being optimistic in assuming that antilock brakes would produce fatality benefits." That's any fatality benefits at all! More…

EPA Turns Over Documents to OMB Watch on Information Removal, Yet Questions Remain

Soon after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, EPA began combing its web site for any information that could potentially be used to stage another attack, according to internal agency documents and emails obtained by OMB Watch through a Freedom of Information Act request -- and almost immediately, information began coming down on a scale much larger than previously reported, as this comprehensive inventory shows.

Internal emails give little sense of any criteria used in making these decisions; instead, the objective apparently was to identify any information that might be of use to a terrorist and extract it for re-examination, without giving much thought to the benefits of dissemination.

Later, after much information was removed, EPA developed criteria to help its re-examination, but EPA determined such criteria to be exempt from the FOIA request. Only a brief and murky summary, presented during congressional testimony, was provided. The public and the users of EPA information continue to be shut out of this process. Even after the fact, when a decision has been made to remove information, EPA has provided almost no explanation. OMB Watch’s FOIA request asked for "any justification for any decision to remove or limit information." Yet we received nothing; instead, EPA’s approach remains a mystery.
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Federal agencies across the board recently released draft guidelines on data quality, some of which are linked to below. For most, the mere mention of "data quality" is likely to inspire a yawn. Yet for business interests, like the Chamber of Commerce, these guidelines represent an important new vehicle to challenge federal regulation, by challenging the information that supports it.

EPA FDA HHS Labor Transportation

Of particular interest in this regard are the implications of the guidelines for agency risk assessments, which generally serve as the foundation and justification for health, safety, and environmental regulation.

In laying out agency-wide parameters for the guidelines, OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, under the leadership of John Graham, went far beyond the congressional mandate and asked agencies to "adapt or adopt" principles for risk assessment laid out in the Safe Drinking Water Act, and to ensure that "influential information," such as risk assessment, is "reproducible." Potentially, this sets up an extremely high burden of proof for regulatory action.
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In 2001, taxpayers spent $235 billion on federal contractors, many of which have lengthy rap sheets, according to a new report from the Project on Government Oversight, as well as articles in U.S. News & World Report and Mother Jones. The following chart, adapted from Mother Jones, highlights the top contractors with both environmental and workplace safety violations, further calling into question the Bush administration's decision to repeal a Clinton-era "contractor responsibility" standard.

Contractors with both EPA and OSHA Violations	Federal Contracts (in millions)	Total Penalties Paid ($)
Ford Motor	$442	$6,082,271
TRW	10,267	5,745,234
Archer Daniels Midland	471	1,676,850
Exxonmobil	2,173	1,481,400
Du Pont	446	956,700
Avondale Industries	1,347	759,100

Recent Stories from the OMB Watcher

Agency Data Quality Guidelines Issued

Court Rejects Move to Allow Dumping from Mountaintop Mining

OMB Pushes Consolidated Online Rulemaking

Secrecy at the EPA

Administration Moves to Clear Way for Dumping, Mountaintop Mining

Supreme Court Rules Against Expansion of 'Takings' Claims

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