Regulatory Policy

Regulatory safeguards play a vital role in protecting us from hazards and ensuring that companies that pollute, make unsafe products, and create workplace hazards bear the cost of cleaning up their messes and preventing injuries and deaths. Still, the regulatory system is far from perfect: Rules take too long to develop; enforcement is often feeble; and political pressure from regulated industries has led to weak safeguards.

These systemic problems are made all the more severe by the determination of the Trump administration to undercut sensible safeguards across virtually all aspects of federal regulation. Moreover, the President and his team have taken aim at the the process by which such safeguards are developed, aiming to take a system already slanted in favor of industry profit at the expense of health, safety and the environment, and make it even less protective. For example, where critics of the use of cost-benefit analysis see a system that understates the value of safeguards and overstates the cost of implementing them -- making it difficult to adopt needed protections -- the Trump administration seeks simply to ignore benefits of safeguards, pretending they do not exist. The result is a regulatory system that fails to enforce landmark laws like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and more.

CPR exposes and opposes efforts by opponents of sensible safeguards to undermine the regulatory system, fighting back against knee-jerk opposition to environmental, health, and safety protections. Below, see what CPR Members Scholars and staff have had to say in reports, testimony, op-eds and more. Use the search box to narrow the list.

Deconstructing Regulatory Science

Writing for The Regulatory Review, Rena Steinzor and Wendy Wagner observe that "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt recently opened another front in his battle to redirect the agency away from its mission to protect human health and the environment. This time, he cobbled together a proposed rule that would drastically change how science is considered during the regulatory process."

Type: Op-Eds (June 19, 2018)
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Author(s): Wendy Wagner, Rena Steinzor
Look to Supreme Court for answers on whether Trump can fire Mueller

Look to Supreme Court for answers on whether Trump can fire Mueller, op-ed by Richard Pierce

Type: Op-Eds (May 18, 2018)
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Author(s): Richard Pierce, Jr.
EPA 'transparency' rule confuses science and regulatory science

EPA 'transparency' rule confuses science and regulatory science, op-ed by Sidney Shapiro

Type: Op-Eds (May 16, 2018)
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Author(s): Sidney Shapiro
May 2, 2018, Congressional Review Act Rollbacks Are Endangering Our Health and Safety

May 2, 2018, Congressional Review Act Rollbacks Are Endangering Our Health and Safety

Type: News Releases (May 2, 2018)
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The Congressional Review Act: The Case for Repeal

The Congressional Review Act: The Case for Repeal, CPR Report 1801, by Thomas O. McGarity, Rena Steinzor, James Goodwin, and Katherine Tracy, May 2018.

Type: Reports (May 2, 2018)
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Author(s): Thomas McGarity, Rena Steinzor, James Goodwin, Katie Tracy
Emily Hammond's April 12, 2018 testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law

Emily Hammond's April 12, 2018 testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law on two House bills that would rig judicial review of environmental permits to favor industry at the expense of the public interest.

Type: Legislative Testimony (April 12, 2018)
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CRA by the Numbers

In the 115th Congress, the GOP majority’s push to dismantle safeguards for health, safety and the environment, no tool has been more useful than the once-obscure Congressional Review Act (CRA). The law allows for the repeal of duly enacted regulatory safeguards using procedures that bypass meaningful deliberation and scrutiny – skipping committee consideration and sidestepping the Senate’s 60-vote cloture requirement.

Type: Reports (April 5, 2018)
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Author(s): James Goodwin
Trump is losing his war on regulations

Trump is losing his war on regulations, op-ed by Lisa Heinzerling

Type: Op-Eds (April 4, 2018)
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Author(s): Lisa Heinzerling
Lisa Heinzerling's testimony to House Committee on Small Business on the impact of the President's ongoing rollback of regulatory safeguards.

Lisa Heinzerling's March 7, 2018, testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business on the impact of the President's ongoing rollback of regulatory safeguards.

Type: Legislative Testimony (March 7, 2018)
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Author(s): Lisa Heinzerling

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