House Considers CDBG But Avoids Attacking PART

In the wake of the White House's attempt to put the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program on the chopping block, a House subcommittee held a hearing to determine whether a program as diverse and flexible as CDBG could be evaluated using OMB's one-size-fits-all performance measurements. Factors Influencing the Hearing

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GOP Seeks Power to Restructure Entire Federal Government

The Bush administration's systematic dismantling of the public's protections could soon accelerate as Republican lawmakers prepare legislation that would permit the unrestrained restructuring of the entire federal government through results commissions and fast-track reorganization authority.

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House Hearing Reveals Unethical Marketing of Vioxx

During a congressional hearing on May 5, the House Government Reform Committee harshly criticized both the Food and Drug Administration and drug makers for their role in approving and marketing Vioxx, an arthritis painkiller linked to heart disease.

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Bush Allows Governors to Challenge Roadless Rule

In yet another attack on our nation's wildlife, the Forest Service published a final rule May 13 that will allow governors to petition for changes to state forest management plans, effectively undoing the Clinton-era forest regulations known as the "roadless rule."

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Homeland Security Wins Power to Waive All Law

A stroke of the pen makes it final: President Bush signed into law the Iraq war supplemental, which includes a controversial provision giving the secretary of homeland security the power to waive all law when securing U.S. borders.

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Anti-Regulatory Hit List Debated in House Hearing

The Bush administration again defended its anti-regulatory hit list to Congress, this time presenting the initiative as a boon to small manufacturers in a hearing before the House Small Business Committee that also featured renewed calls for regulatory sunsets. The committee's Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform and Oversight held a hearing on April 28 to discuss the White House's hit list of regulatory protections to be weakened or eliminated supposedly for the benefit of the manufacturing sector.

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UMRA, Results Proposals Advance in Budget Resolution

The budget resolution Congress finally agreed upon last week incorporated language that endorses the establishment of a results commission and marks the first steps in the direction of turning the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) into an insurmountable obstacle for new protections of the public interest.

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Testimony on Hit List Before the House Small Business Committee

Download testimony of Robert Shull before the House Small Business Committee's Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform and Oversight, concerning the OMB anti-regulatory hit list.

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House Considers Anti-Regulatory Hit List

The White House's anti-regulatory hit list took center stage in a House committee hearing, during which GOP members and White House regulatory czar John Graham praised the hit list as a gift to the manufacturing sector while Democratic members criticized the entire project as yet another example of a corporate special interest takeover of government.

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Local Governments Demand UMRA Changes to Avoid Accountability

State and local governments addressed a Senate subcommittee and called for an expansion of provisions in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) that would further relieve them from their obligations to provide important public protections.

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