Putting Regulatory Tools to Work Protecting People and the Environment
Middle school civics texts tell us that Congress writes the laws and the executive branch enforces them. In practice, of course, it’s a good deal more complicated than that.
When it comes to health, safety and the environment – the Center for Progressive Reform’s core issue areas – executive branch enforcement of the law has become yet another arena to fight and re-fight policy battles presumably settled in Congress. In particular, regulated entities – including companies that pollute or that make potentially dangerous products – have become especially savvy at leveraging their relationships in Washington. During the Bush years, their efforts helped them secure enfeebled regulatory policy – regulations that often undercut the very laws they were meant to effect, and enforcement approaches that rendered meaningful regulations all but toothless.
In the view of CPR Member Scholars, the federal regulatory system has fallen – or perhaps more accurately – been pushed into a state of disrepair. Much needed health and safety regulations have been delayed for years, weakened to the point of ineffectiveness, and then sporadically enforced. Federal agencies charged with protecting Americans from various hazards in our food, consumer products, chemicals in commerce, the air and water, and in the workplace have been drastically underfunded, and until recently, their agendas diverted.
The consequences of this failed system of regulation are the stuff of national headlines – construction cranes collapsing, toxic drywall, poisonous children's jewelry and toys, contaminated peanut butter and produce, drugs with fatal side effects, and more. The agencies established to protect Americans from these hazards need to be reinvigorated, and their efforts to protect Americans given higher priority.
The Obama Administration did not create the regulatory mess, but it falls to them to fix it. In January of 2010, CPR Member Scholars Rena Steinzor and Amy Sinden, joined by Executive Director Shana Jones and Policy Analyst James Goodwin, issued Obama’s Regulators: A First-Year Report Card, evaluating the Obama Administration's initial efforts on the regulatory front. Their overall grade: a B-. The report also graded each of the five "protector" agencies responsible for guarding against hazards to public health, safety and the environment -- the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Read more about the report card, here.
Read about the Member Scholars’ efforts on regulatory issies on these pages:
