Setting and Enforcing Regulations | Center for Effective Government

FCC Rigs Cost-Benefit Report to Side With Industry on Cable A La Carte

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sided with the cable and big media industries against regulation mandating à la carte cable service, justifying its position with a cost-benefit analysis rigged against à la carte options. The vision of cable à la carte is that cable customers could pick and pay for only the channels they want. Most American consumers can only purchase cable service in large tiered packages, like “basic” and “expanded” service packages, which require them to pay for channels they never watch in order to receive the channels they do want.

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Panel Nixes Endangered Species Status After Politico Bashes Science

A panel of Fish and Wildlife Service officials has recommended against granting Endangered Species Act protections to the greater sage grouse, based on source materials that included scientific assessments from federal biologists and a critique of that science from a political appointee with no background at all in biology.

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Superfund Lacks Funds to Cleanup Toxic Waste Sites

Facing an increasing backlog of sites with the same meager budget, the Superfund program administrator thinks he’s found a new way to tackle the country’s most severe hazardous waste problems: Stop addressing them. Superfund Program Looking for New Solutions

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Saving Graces on Intelligence Reform Bill

In a surprising move, congressional and White House negotiators agreed on intelligence reform legislation that created no major victories for the public interest but could have been much worse for open government and environmental protection near the nation’s borders. The final bill still keeps secret the total intelligence budget, which the Washington Post estimated to be approximately $40 billion. The 9/11 Commission had pushed Congress to catalyze stronger public oversight of the government’s intelligence activities by disclosing the total annual budget.

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Second Court Rules Data Quality Act Not Judicially Reviewable

The second federal court to address judicial reviewability of the Data Quality Act (DQA) and its subsequent guidelines has found that neither the DQA nor the Administrative Procedure Act permits judicial review. The court also found that plaintiffs, the Salt Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, who filed the lawsuit against the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) over statements about the health benefits from lower sodium diets, lacked any legal standing. Based on these findings, the court dismissed the case on Nov. 15.

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Critics Diagnose Systemic Maladies of FDA

A Senate Finance Committee hearing on Vioxx and a series of studies by a leading medical journal reveal systematic breakdowns in FDA's evaluation of drug safety, prompting advocates to call for an independent agency to review drug safety. Drug Researcher Testifies: The System is 'Broken'

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Reg Round-Up

How to stay on top of appointments news and rumors • Learn about the mad cow scare — and the unaddressed weaknesses in safeguards against mad cow disease • EPA rollback killing children • And more news briefs and alerts! Do the Cabinet Shuffle: Who will be running the agencies in the next term of the Bush administration? Stay on top of the latest news and rumors in REG•WATCH, our regulatory policy weblog.

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Graham Defiant in Hearing, Dems Probe Mercury Rule

The last regulatory policy hearing of a House Government Reform subcommittee was split into two disconnected halves, as committee Republicans considered the White House's policy of inviting industry to suggest rollbacks of regulatory protections while Democrats assailed the Environmental Protection Agency's pending rulemaking for mercury pollution.

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NAS Biases Panel With Industry Interests

The National Academies biased a panel to study the risks from disposing coal wastes in abandoned mines by appointing six members with ties to the mining, coal, and electric utility industries, of whom two have subsequently stepped down after criticism from public interest groups.

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New Cases of Mad Cow Disease Highlight Need to Close Loopholes in Protection

Two new cases of mad cow disease found in Canada serve as a dramatic reminder of the need for improved safeguards against the disease here in the U.S.

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