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.

Comments to EPA Science Advisory Board on Science Integration for Decision Making

Comments from CPR Member Scholar Rena Steinzor and Senior Policy Analyst Matthew Shudtz on a draft report by the EPA Scientific Advisory Board's Committee on Science Integration for Decision Making

Type: Letters to Agencies (Jan. 24, 2012)
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Author(s): Rena Steinzor, Matt Shudtz
Sidney Shapiro's testimony on the Regulatory Accountability Act, before the House Judiciary Committee

Sidney Shapiro's October 25, 2011, testimony on the Regulatory Accountability Act, before the House Judiciary Committee

Type: Legislative Testimony (Oct. 24, 2011)
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Author(s): Sidney Shapiro
Regulation Under Attack: The Overlooked Story of How Regulations Protect Lives
Edit Memo: Regulation Under Attack: The Overlooked Story of How Regulations Protect Lives, by Sidney Shapiro
Type: Editorial Memos (Aug. 31, 2011)
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Business as Usual in the Gulf

Business as Usual in the Gulf, by Rena Steinzor

Type: Op-Eds (April 21, 2011)
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Author(s): Rena Steinzor
Twelve Crucial Health, Safety, and Environmental Regulations: Will the Obama Administration Finish in Time?

Twelve Crucial Health, Safety, and Environmental Regulations: Will the Obama Administration Finish in Time?, CPR White Paper 1106

Type: Reports (April 19, 2011)
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Author(s): Amy Sinden, Rena Steinzor, Matt Shudtz, James Goodwin, Yee Huang
John Echeverria's testimony on a proposal to restrict state use of eminent domain, before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution.

John Echeverria's April 12, 2011, testimony on a proposal to restrict state use of eminent domain, before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution

Type: Legislative Testimony (April 12, 2011)
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Author(s): John Echeverria

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