Study Finds Bush Administration Obstructs and Weakens Regulation Across Agencies
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SEPTEMBER 15, 2004
5:45 PM
CONTACT: OMB Watch
Robert Shull 202/234-8494x276
Herb Ettel 202/234-8494x213
Study Finds Bush Administration Obstructs and Weakens Regulation Across Agencies, Withdraws Over 200 Proposed Rules and Fails to Complete Over 70% of Target Actions
WASHINGTON - September 15 - An analysis of four key federal agencies charged with safeguarding the public's air, water, food, health, transportation and workplaces reveals consistent and widespread obstruction, neglect and weakening of protections. The report attributes the pattern to a pro-corporate bias of the Bush administration and appointed agency heads favoring narrow special interests over the public good.
In "The Bush Regulatory Record: A Pattern of Failure," OMB Watch analysts document the Bush administration's inaction and obstruction since taking office:
* EPA has withdrawn 90 agenda items, most addressing clean air and water, and in the first half of 2004 failed to achieve 73 percent of benchmark items it scheduled for completion.
* FDA has withdrawn 62 agenda items, including one to track contaminated blood, and in the first half of 2004 failed to achieve 70 percent of benchmark items it scheduled for completion.
* NHTSA has withdrawn 31 auto safety agenda items and, in the first half of 2004, failed to achieve 71 percent of the benchmark items scheduled for completion.
* OSHA has withdrawn 24 agenda items, including one to protect workers from exposure to tuberculosis, and in the first half of 2004 it failed to advance 75 percent of benchmark items scheduled for action. It also eliminated data collection on musculoskeletal disorders.
Combined, these four agencies have either withdrawn or failed to complete work on a majority of the regulatory priorities already on the agenda when the Bush administration took office – ranging from 56 percent at the EPA to 86 percent at OSHA. Moreover, the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has approved only 25 economically significant rules total for the four agencies -- roughly half the number approved during each term of the Clinton administration and a third of those approved during the Bush I administration.
"When our government abdicates its responsibility to provide us the protections we need, people suffer," said Robert Shull, the report's lead author and Senior Regulatory Policy Analyst with OMB Watch. "It weakens our nation and has long-term implications for generations to come."
"Since 2001, key regulatory plans have been abandoned, and those few major rules that have been undertaken favor corporate over public interests," said Gary Bass, OMB Watch Executive Director. "Statistics show a pattern of neglect, but not how the few rules being done decidedly favor industry."
This report updates and expands our May 2004 report, "Special Interest Takeover: The Bush Administration and the Dismantling of Public Safeguards," which OMB Watch and Center for American Progress produced for Citizens for Sensible Safeguards (CSS). Download both reports and background at www.ombwatch.org/regs.
OMB Watch is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in Washington, DC, and was founded in 1983 to promote government accountability and citizen participation, and to lift the veil of secrecy shrouding the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the federal agencies it oversees.
THE BUSH REGULATORY RECORD: A PATTERN OF FAILURE
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2 Executive Summary
7 Introduction: Continuing in the Wrong Direction
7 About this Analysis
9 Findings
10 Continuing to Shirk Responsibility
14 Inaction: Continuing to Let Pressing Needs Go Unaddressed
16 Continuing to Place Special Interests Over the Public Interest
24 EPA: Withering on the Vine
24 Floating With the Current: Items Completed
25 Coal-Fired Power Plants: Permission to Pollute
26 Emission Standards for Automakers
27 Clear Skies: Ozone
28 Lost in the Smog: Items Withdrawn
30 Stuck in the Mud: Continued Inaction
32 FDA: In Critical Condition
32 Band-Aids: Items Completed
34 Malpractice: Items Withdrawn
34 Protecting the Blood Supply: Patient Notification
35 Preventing Mad Cow Disease
36 Bad Medicine: Continued Inaction
39 NHTSA: Driving in the Slow Lane
39 Lurching Forward: Items Completed
41 Tire Safety
42 Fuel Integrity
43 Early Warning Systems
43 Duel Fuel
44 Spinning Its Wheels: Items Withdrawn
45 Considering in a Different Context
45 Waiting for More Research
46 Stuck in Neutral: Continued Inaction
47 Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems
48 Fuel Economy: Structural Reform
51 OSHA: Sleeping on the Job
51 Just Showing Up: Items Completed
53 Shirking Responsibility: Items Withdrawn
53 Tuberculosis
54 Glycol Ethers
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