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.

EPA Just Adopted a See-No-Evil Policy

EPA Just Adopted a See-No-Evil Policy, op-ed by Thomas McGarity

Type: Op-Eds (March 13, 2017)
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Author(s): Thomas McGarity
Joint letter from CPR Member Scholars on ‘Ghost Rules’ in the regulatory pipeline at the beginning of the Trump administration

Joint letter from CPR Member Scholars to eight department heads on ‘Ghost Rules’ in the regulatory pipeline at the beginning of the Trump administration

Type: Letters to Agencies (March 12, 2017)
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Author(s): Rena Steinzor, Thomas McGarity, Sidney Shapiro
EPA Just Adopted a See-No-Evil Policy

EPA Just Adopted a See-No-Evil Policy, op-ed by Thomas McGarity

Type: Op-Eds (March 9, 2017)
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Author(s): Thomas McGarity
Ruling by Decree

Ruling by Decree, op-ed by David Driesen

Type: Op-Eds (March 3, 2017)
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Author(s): David Driesen
Trump's Two-for-One Regulation Order Will Lead to Court Battles

Trump's Two-for-One Regulation Order Will Lead to Court Battles, op-ed by Richard Pierce

Type: Op-Eds (Feb. 23, 2017)
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Author(s): Richard Pierce, Jr.
Gorsuch Must Show Commitment to a Democratic America

Gorsuch Must Show Commitment to a Democratic America, op-ed by Joseph Tomain

Type: Op-Eds (Feb. 22, 2017)
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Author(s): Joseph Tomain
Neil Gorsuch Might Stand Up Against Abuse of Power

Neil Gorsuch Might Stand Up Against Abuse of Power, op-ed by Dan Farber

Type: Op-Eds (Feb. 22, 2017)
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Author(s): Daniel Farber
An Inauspicious Environmental Start for Trump

An Inauspicious Environmental Start for Trump, op-ed by Joel Mintz

Type: Op-Eds (Feb. 16, 2017)
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Author(s): Joel Mintz
The President's Judicial Ignorance and Obstruction Is Dangerous

The President's Judicial Ignorance and Obstruction Is Dangerous, op-ed by Robert Adler

Type: Op-Eds (Feb. 13, 2017)
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Author(s): Robert Adler

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