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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How Trump Officials Abuse Cost-Benefit Analysis to Attack Regulations

How Trump Officials Abuse Cost-Benefit Analysis to Attack Regulations, op-ed by Dan Farber

Type: Op-Eds (Jan. 9, 2019)
PDF: How Trump Officials Abuse Cost-Benefit Analysis to Attack Regulations
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Author(s): Daniel Farber
Tags: cost-benefit
Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy

Joint Letter to Senate Majority Leader McConnell calling for an end to the government shutdown, January 23, 2019.

Joint Letter to Senate Majority Leader McConnell calling for an end to the government shutdown, January 23, 2019.

Type: Legislative Testimony (Jan. 23, 2019)
PDF: Joint Letter to Senate Majority Leader McConnell calling for an end to the government shutdown, January 23, 2019.
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Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy

The Shutdown and the Safety Gap

The Shutdown and the Safety Gap, op-ed by Thomas McGarity
Type: Op-Eds (Feb. 5, 2019)
PDF: The Shutdown and the Safety Gap
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Author(s): Thomas McGarity
Tags: enforcement shutdown assault on our safeguards
Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy

Joint Letter urging back pay for federal contractors who went without pay during the federal government shutdown

In a joint letter signed by 60+ organizations, CPR urges congressional leaders to provide back pay for federal contractors who went without wages during the federal government shutdown, February 4, 2019.

Type: Legislative Testimony (Feb. 4, 2019)
PDF: Joint Letter from 60+ organizations urging congressional leaders to provide back pay for federal contractors who went without pay during the federal government shutdown, February 4, 2019.
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Author(s): Katie Tracy
Tags: shutdown
Categories: Workers' Rights Workers' Rights

Last government shutdown offers lessons on avoiding another

Last government shutdown offers lessons on avoiding another, op-ed by Joel Mintz

Type: Op-Eds (Feb. 6, 2019)
PDF: Last government shutdown offers lessons
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Author(s): Joel Mintz
Tags: shutdown assault on our safeguards
Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy