Regulatory Transparency

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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Anti-worker, Anti-regulatory Bills Pass House

The House of Representatives voted to pass five bills, four of which threaten workplace safety while the other threatens regulatory safeguards across the board. The anti-regulatory bill, H.R. 2432, authorizes a study of "regulatory budgeting," a project that could ration protections of the public health, safety, and environment by setting an artificial cap of regulatory "costs" that can be imposed. An amendment proposed by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) would have established a panel to study the politicization of science, but it was defeated just before the House voted to pass the bill.

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OSHA Bills Protect Employers at Cost of Workers' Safety

The House may soon consider four bills amending the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which would effectively consolidate White House control over the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) and provide leniency to employers at the cost of the health and safety of workers.

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Administration Limits Objections to Forest Thinning

The Bush administration issued an interim final rule Jan. 9 that limits the public’s ability to challenge forest-thinning projects under the recently enacted Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which allows increased logging purportedly to reduce the danger of wildfire. Under the rule:

You can only launch an administrative appeal to stop a project if you submitted comments during the formal public comment period;
Federal agencies are not allowed to file objections;

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Administration Abandons Plan to Lift Wetlands Protections

The Bush administration recently abandoned a proposal, sought by developers, to remove federal protection for as much as 20 million acres of wetlands after receiving more than 133,000 comments in opposition from environmentalists, sportsmen, state officials, and others.

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Proposal to Cut Overtime Pay Elicits Huge Response

More than 75,000 people have written to the Department of Labor (DOL) in response to its proposed changes to overtime standards -- the most mail the agency has received on any similar issue in at least a decade, according to the Washington Post. DOL’s proposed changes, issued March 31, 2003, would significantly alter current overtime rules -- stripping eight million workers of their right to time-and-a-half pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a single week, according to a recent analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.

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New Forest Rules to Increase Logging, Limit Public Participation

The Bush administration recently finalized standards that will allow more forest-thinning projects to evade the established environmental review process, including public appeals -- likely accelerating logging in forests.

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Problems with the 'Regulatory Right-to-Know Act' (S. 59)

1. It contains a burdensome requirement for cumulative cost-benefit analysis that has no practical utility for public policy. For the last three years, Congress has enacted appropriations riders requiring OMB to conduct a cumulative cost-benefit analysis, expressed in monetized figures, for all federal regulation.

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Problems with the 'Regulatory Right-to-Know Act' (H.R. 1074)

1. It contains a burdensome requirement for cumulative cost-benefit analysis that has no practical utility for public policy. For the last three years, Congress has enacted appropriations riders requiring OMB to conduct a cumulative cost-benefit analysis, expressed in monetized figures, for all federal regulation.

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more resources

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

Anti-worker, Anti-regulatory Bills Pass House

OSHA Bills Protect Employers at Cost of Workers' Safety

Administration Limits Objections to Forest Thinning

Administration Abandons Plan to Lift Wetlands Protections

Proposal to Cut Overtime Pay Elicits Huge Response

New Forest Rules to Increase Logging, Limit Public Participation

Problems with the 'Regulatory Right-to-Know Act' (S. 59)

Problems with the 'Regulatory Right-to-Know Act' (H.R. 1074)

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Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

Blowing Smoke: Chemical Companies Say “Trust Us,” But Environmental and Workplace Safety Violations Belie Their Rhetoric

Gasping for Support: Implementation of Tougher Air Quality Standards Will Require New Funds for State Agencies

Revenue & Spending Topics

Recent Reports

Living in the Shadow of Danger: State Scorecards

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us