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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Time for a Regulatory Revival

Time for a Regulatory Revival, op-ed by Rena Steinzor

Type: Op-Eds (June 18, 2010)
PDF: Time for a Regulatory Revival
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Author(s): Rena Steinzor
Categories: Energy & Environment Energy & Environment Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy

Comments on 2010 OMB Report to Congress on Costs and Benefits of Regulation

Comments from CPR Member Scholars and staff on 2010 OMB Report to Congress on Costs and Benefits of Regulation

Type: Letters to Agencies (June 23, 2010)
PDF: OMB Report to Congress on Costs and Benefits of Regulation
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Author(s): Sidney Shapiro, Amy Sinden, Rena Steinzor, James Goodwin
Tags: OIRA OMB Reports to Congress cost-benefit
Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy

August 3, 2010, Industry's 'Capture' of Federal Agencies Pervasive as Regulatory Failures Pile Up, Administrative Law Expert Tells Congressional Panel; Proposes Four Actions For Congress to Address Problem.

August 3, 2010,
Type: News Releases (Aug. 3, 2010)
PDF: August 3, 2010, Industry's 'Capture' of Federal Agencies Pervasive as Regulatory Failures Pile Up, Administrative Law Expert Tells Congressional Panel; Proposes Four Actions For Congress to Address Problem.
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Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy

Sidney Shapiro's testimony on agency capture, before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. News release.

Sidney Shapiro's August 3, 2010, testimony on agency capture, before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. News release.

Type: Legislative Testimony (Aug. 3, 2010)
PDF: Sidney Shapiro's August 3, 2010 testimony on agency capture, before the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts. News release.
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Author(s): Sidney Shapiro
Tags: regulatory capture
Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy

August 30, 2010, What's Behind Recent Regulatory Failures? Experts Go Beyond Finger-Pointing at Regulators, Identify Systemic Problems in Washington's Approach to Regulation.

August 30, 2010,
Type: News Releases (Aug. 30, 2010)
PDF: August 30, 2010, What's Behind Recent Regulatory Failures? Experts Go Beyond Finger-Pointing at Regulators, Identify Systemic Problems in Washington's Approach to Regulation.
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Categories: Regulatory Policy Regulatory Policy