Within days of the Federal Election Commission's (FEC) May 13 decision to delay action on its proposed rule expanding regulation of independent political committees (often referred to as 527 groups), Republicans began calling for aggressive fundraising for groups sympathetic to them. By the end of May some Republican Members of Congress were stretching the limits of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA) by agreeing to appear at fundraisers for groups like the Leadership Forum.

On May 19, 2004, a federal court judge threw out the charges brought against Greenpeace by the United States Justice Department. Shortly after the prosecution rested their case, the judge decided that there was not enough evidence for the case to go to the jury and granted the motion for acquittal.

Citizens for Sensible Safeguards released a new report documenting a systematic attack on regulatory protections to a standing-room-only crowd at an event that featured former federal workers who have resigned in protest of that attack. The report, Special Interest Takeover: The Bush Administration and the Dismantling of Public Safeguards, was produced on behalf of Citizens for Sensible Safeguards by OMB Watch and the Center for American Progress.

The House advanced the regulatory rollback this month by passing five bills, one of which threatens safeguards across the board while the other four specifically target workplace health and safety protections. The first of these bills, subtitled the " HREF="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:h.r.02432:"> Paperwork and Regulatory Improvements Act of 2004," authorizes a pilot project for "regulatory budgeting" at three of five public health, safety, or environment agencies. Although modified somewhat from its first draft, in part because of