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.

CPR Member Scholars letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Toyota safety recall

CPR Member Scholars Rena Steinzor and Sidney Shapiro's letter to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee re the failure of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to address in a timely fashion engineering failures in certain Toyota models

Type: Letters to Agencies (Feb. 9, 2010)
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Author(s): Sidney Shapiro, Rena Steinzor
January 14, 2010, Obama Regulatory Efforts Earned Mixed Review

Obama Regulatory Efforts Earned Mixed Review

Type: News Releases (Jan. 14, 2010)
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Editorial Memo on the Obama Administration's Forthcoming Executive Order on Regulatory Process
Editorial Memo: The Obama Administration's Forthcoming Executive Order on Regulatory Process, by Rena Steinzor and Robert Glicksman
Type: Editorial Memos (Nov. 20, 2009)
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Letter to OIRA on 2009 OMB Report to Congress

Comments to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on 2009 OMB Report to Congress re the costs and benefits of regulation, by Amy Sinden, Rena Steinzor and James Goodwin

Type: Letters to Agencies (Nov. 5, 2009)
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Author(s): Amy Sinden, Rena Steinzor, James Goodwin
Fifty FDAs: An Argument for Federal Preemption of State Tort Law that Is Less than Meets the Eye
Type: Reports (Oct. 28, 2009)
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Author(s): William Buzbee, Bill Funk, Thomas McGarity, Sidney Shapiro, James Goodwin, Matt Shudtz
The Truth About Torts: Regulatory Preemption at the Federal Railroad Administration

The Truth About Torts: Regulatory Preemption at the Federal Railroad Administration, CPR White Paper 910

Type: Reports (Oct. 28, 2009)
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Author(s): Nina Mendelson, Bill Funk, Sidney Shapiro, Thomas McGarity, Jennifer Marshall, James Goodwin
A Return to Common Sense: Protecting Health, Safety, and the Environment Through Pragmatic Regulatory Impact Analysis

A Return to Common Sense: Protecting Health, Safety, and the Environment Through Pragmatic Regulatory Impact Analysis, CPR White Paper 909

Type: Reports (Oct. 27, 2009)
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Author(s): Rena Steinzor, Amy Sinden, Sidney Shapiro, James Goodwin
The Hidden Human and Environmental Costs of Regulatory Delay

The Hidden Human and Environmental Costs of Regulatory Delay, CPR White Paper 907

Type: Reports (Oct. 27, 2009)
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Author(s): Catherine O'Neill, Amy Sinden, Rena Steinzor, James Goodwin, Yee Huang
Reviving Regulation

Reviving Regulation, op-ed by Rena Steinzor

Type: Op-Eds (Sept. 28, 2009)
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Author(s): Rena Steinzor

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