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.

Richard Pierce's testimony before the House Budget Committee re 'regulatory budget' proposals.

Richard Pierce's July 7, 2016, testimony before the House Budget Committee re 'regulatory budget' proposals.

Type: Legislative Testimony (July 12, 2016)
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Author(s): Richard Pierce, Jr.
David Driesen's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law re OIRA's role and cost-benefit analysis.

David Driesen's July 6, 2016, testimony before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law re OIRA's role and cost-benefit analysis.

Type: Legislative Testimony (July 6, 2016)
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Author(s): David Driesen
Joint letter from several CPR Member Scholars to the House Judiciary Committee re judicial review and the Administrative Procedures Act.

Several CPR Member Scholars' June 8, 2016 letter to the House Judiciary Committee Chair and Ranking Member re judicial review and the Administrative Procedures Act.

Type: Legislative Testimony (June 8, 2016)
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Author(s): Daniel Farber, Victor Flatt, Robert Glicksman, Gillian Metzger, Richard Murphy, Sidney Shapiro, Robert Verchick
Dangerous Bedfellows: The stalemate on criminal justice reform.

Writing for The American Prospect, Rena Steinzor takes note of the unusual roll call of supporters for criminal justice reform legislation, and efforts by conservatives to use the bill to weaken enforcement of white-collar crime laws.

Type: Op-Eds (May 11, 2016)
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Author(s): Rena Steinzor
OIRA 101: The Most Powerful Government Agency You've Never Heard Of

Read CPR's backgrounder on the role of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

Type: Reports (May 4, 2016)
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Utah Judiciary's Lack of Diversity Will Not Correct Itself

Utah Judiciary's Lack of Diversity Will Not Correct Itself, op-ed by Robert Adler

Type: Op-Eds (May 2, 2016)
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Author(s): Robert Adler
Emily Hammond's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee 'Executive Overreach' Task Force on executive authority

Emily Hammond's April 19, 2016 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee 'Executive Overreach' Task Force on executive authority.

Type: Legislative Testimony (April 19, 2016)
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Vacancy Creates Uncertainty on Supreme Court

Vacancy Creates Uncertainty on Supreme Court, op-ed by Joseph P. Tomain

Type: Op-Eds (March 16, 2016)
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Author(s): Joseph Tomain
Joint letter from CPR Member Scholars to House Speaker Ryan and Minority Leader Pelosi, re the Sunshine for Regulations Act of 2016

Robert Verchick, Thomas McGarity, Sidney Shapiro, and Richard Murphy January 5, 2016 letter to Speaker Ryan and Minority Leader Pelosi, re the Sunshine for Regulations Act of 2016.

Type: Legislative Testimony (Jan. 5, 2016)
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Author(s): Robert Verchick, Thomas McGarity, Sidney Shapiro, Richard Murphy

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