Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) grilled John Graham, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), on whether he is seeking to roll back regulation at the request of affected industry at a March 12 hearing in the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs. The hearing focused on a report by Graham’s office that suggested a host of major health and environmental regulations, including clean air and water standards, need to be revised or repealed. "High priority" rules that appeared on Graham’s list were dominated by suggestions from the conservative, industry-funded Mercatus Center, which was represented at the hearing by Susan Dudley. The Washington City Paper recently ran a cover story on the Mercatus Center and its corporate contributors. In response to criticism that this reflects an anti-regulatory bias, Graham has indicated to OMB Watch that he will make clear in seeking comments for his next report on federal regulation (which is an annual requirement directed by Congress) that OIRA is interested in nominations for both "more" and "less" regulation, "as long as the analytic case for overall public welfare is made clear." A draft report is expected to be out for comment in the very near future. Other witnesses at the hearing included Joan Claybrook (see testimony here), president of Public Citizen, and Georgetown law professor Lisa Heinzerling, who both testified on OIRA’s slant against health, safety, and environmental protection, as well as the shortcomings of the cost-benefit estimates presented in Graham’s report, which often rely on data that is misleading, outdated, and inaccurate. For more detail on Graham's actions at OIRA, see this OMB Watch analysis.