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.

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Rescuing Science from Politics: Regulation and the Distortion of Scientific Research

Rescuing Science from Politics: Regulation and the Distortion of Scientific Research, by Wendy Wagner and Rena Steinzor

Type: Reports (Aug. 6, 2006)
PDF: Rescuing Science from Politics: Regulation and the Distortion of Scientific Research, by Wendy Wagner and Rena Steinzor
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Author(s): Wendy Wagner, Rena Steinzor
Tags: clean science
Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy

Sidney Shapiro's testimony on the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 2008.

Sidney Shapiro's April 2, 2008, testimony before the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, on the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 2008.

Type: Legislative Testimony (April 2, 2008)
PDF: Sidney Shapiro's April 2, 2008 testimony before the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, on the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 2008.
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Author(s): Sidney Shapiro
Tags: advisory committees
Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy

David Vladeck's testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Bush Administration's push for agency preemption of state tort laws.

David Vladeck's September 12, 2007, testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Bush Administration's push for agency preemption of state tort laws.

Type: Legislative Testimony (Sept. 12, 2007)
PDF: David Vladeck's September 12, 2007 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Bush Administration's push for agency preemption of state tort laws.
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Author(s): David Vladeck
Tags: preemption
Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy

November 11, 2008. CPR Scholars Propose Slate of Executive Orders to Launch Obama Administration's Work on Health, Safety and Environment.

Type: News Releases (Nov. 11, 2008)
PDF: November 11, 2008,'CPR Scholars Propose Slate of Executive Orders to Launch Obama Administration's Work on Health, Safety and Environment.
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Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy

David Vladeck's February 13, 2007 testimony on EO 13422 before the Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, U.S. House of Representatives.

Type: Legislative Testimony (Feb. 13, 2007)
PDF: David Vladeck's February 13, 2007 testimony on EO 13422 before the Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight, U.S. House of Representatives.
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Author(s): David Vladeck
Tags: regulatory review
Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy

The Truth About Torts: Rethinking Regulatory Preemption

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

Type: Reports (March 11, 2009)
PDF: The Truth About Torts: Rethinking Regulatory Preemption (2 meg), CPR White Paper 902
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Author(s): William Buzbee, Bill Funk, Thomas McGarity, Nina Mendelson, Sidney Shapiro, David Vladeck, Matt Shudtz
Tags: torts preemption
Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy