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.

Editorial memorandum on Wendy Wagner/David Michaels proposal for disclosure of corporate influence on science in the regulatory process.
Editorial memorandum: Wendy Wagner and David Michaels' proposal for disclosure of corporate influence on science in the regulatory process.
Type: Editorial Memos (May 6, 2009)
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Rena Steinzor's testimony before the House Science and Technology Committee's Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight on clean science and regulatory issues.

Rena Steinzor's April 30, 2009, testimony before the House Science and Technology Committee's Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight on clean science and regulatory issues.

Type: Legislative Testimony (April 30, 2009)
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Author(s): Rena Steinzor
Rescuing Science from Politics

Rescuing Science from Politics, op-ed by Wendy Wagner and Rena Steinzor

Type: Op-Eds (March 23, 2009)
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Author(s): Rena Steinzor, Wendy Wagner
Final Comments on Obama Regulatory Review Process

Final Comments on Obama Regulatory Review Process, joint letter from several CPR Member Scholars

Type: Letters to Agencies (March 16, 2009)
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Author(s): Robert Glicksman, Thomas McGarity, Sidney Shapiro, Amy Sinden, Rena Steinzor, Robert Verchick
The Truth About Torts: Rethinking Regulatory Preemption

The Truth About Torts: Rethinking Regulatory Preemption, CPR White Paper 902

Type: Reports (March 11, 2009)
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Author(s): William Buzbee, Bill Funk, Thomas McGarity, Nina Mendelson, Sidney Shapiro, David Vladeck, Matt Shudtz
Preliminary Comments on Obama Regulatory Process Memo.

Preliminary Comments on Obama Regulatory Process Memo. Letter to OMB chief Peter Orszag.

Type: Letters to Agencies (Feb. 20, 2009)
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Author(s): Rena Steinzor

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