SPECIAL INTEREST TAKEOVER The Bush Administration and the Dismantling of Public Safeguards Produced by The Center for American Progress & OMB Watch for The Citizens for Sensible Safeguards Coalition SPECIAL INTEREST TAKEOVER The Bush Administration and the Dismantling of Public Safeguards Produced by The Center for American Progress & OMB Watch for The Citizens for Sensible Safeguards Coalition Acknowledgments Reece Rushing, associate director for regulatory policy at the Center for American Progress, is primary author of Special Interest Takeover. Mr. Rushing worked for more than seven years at OMB Watch before joining the Center in March 2004. Melissa Brennan, formerly of OMB Watch, also contributed significant writing and research for this report. Gary D. Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, and Mark Agrast, senior vice president for domestic policy at the Center for American Progress, provided overall guidance. Shannon Ferguson and Robert Shull of OMB Watch stepped in to contribute in the final stages of the project. In addition, a number of reviewers provided essential feedback, including Deborah Weinstock of the AFL-CIO; Thomas O. McGarity and Rena Steinzor of the Center for Progressive Regulation; Eric Schaeffer of the Environmental Integrity Project; Amy Mall of the Natural Resources Defense Council; and Winifred DePalma, Allison Zieve, Peter Lurie, and Leah Barron of Public Citizen. Other coalition partners also provided valuable assistance. Sustain, a Chicago-based organization that provides multi-media assistance to nonprofits, designed the report. Brian Murray was the primary designer and Bridget Gavaghan provided leadership over the design phase. None of this would have been possible without the support of several foundations, including the Bauman Foundation, Beldon Fund, Compton Foundation, and Homeland Foundation. We appreciate their support and continued commitment to educate the public about government decision-making. About Citizens for Sensible Safeguards In 1995, more than 200 public interest organizations – representing everything from environmental and consumer concerns to workers and civil rights – came together to form the Citizens for Sensible Safeguards coalition, chaired by OMB Watch. Through the remainder of the 90s, this coalition successfully beat back a string of regulatory “reform” bills that sought to prevent new public and environmental safeguards. Since then, coalition members have actively worked to spotlight special- interest influence over the executive branch. This report represents a compilation of their efforts. For more information go to http://www.sensiblesafeguards.org. The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. The Center works to find progressive and pragmatic solutions to significant domestic and international problems and develop policy proposals that foster a government that is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” OMB Watch is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting government accountability and citizen participation in public policy decisions. This mission centers on four main areas: the federal budget; regulatory policy; public access to government information; and policy participation by nonprofit organizations. OMB Watch was founded in 1983 to lift the veil of secrecy shrouding the powerful White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The organization has since expanded its focus to include the substantive areas that OMB oversees. Center for American Progress OMB Watch 805 15th Street, NW 1742 Connecticut Ave., NW Suite 400 Washington, D.C. 20009 Washington, D.C. 20005 Phone: 202-234-8494 Phone: 202-682-1611 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Web: http://www.ombwatch.org Web: http://www.americanprogress.org Table of Contents A Record of Rollbacks pg11 -Backing Off Power Plants & -Exempting the Military Undoing Clean Air Standards 12 from Environmental Laws 35 -Bowing to Mining Interests 21 -Undoing Protections for Workers 37 -Drilling on Public Lands 25 -Stripping Patient Protections 42 -Clearing the Way for Logging 29 -Undoing Food Labeling Protections 44 -Rewarding Developers 33 -Relaxing Media Ownership Rules 45 White House Roadblock pg47 -Standards Weakened 48 -New Blockades 53 The TollToll of Neglect pg59 -Security 60 -Food Safety 68 -Clean Air 63 -Auto Safety 69 -Clean Water 64 -Health Care 69 -Worker Health and Safety 65 -Consumer Product Safety 70 Cop Off the Beat pg71 -Lessons form the SEC 72 -Neglecting Food Safety 80 -Backing Off Polluters 73 -Backing Off Drug Companies 85 -Jeopardizing Worker Health and Safety 78 Sworn to Secrecy pg87 -Turning FOIA on its Head 88 -Stonewalling Congress 89 -Cracking Down on Whistleblowers 93 -Hiding Information in the Name of 9/11 95 Politics Over Science pg100 -Suppressing Scientifi c Information 101 -Stacking Scientifi c Advisory Committees 108 Irresponsible Contracting pg115 -Turning Away from -Muzzling and Intimidating Grantees 120 Contractor Responsibility 116 -Privatizing the Federal Workforce 121 -Federal Funding for -Secret Contracts for Iraq 124 Religious Organizations 117 Whose Government Is This? pg130 Endnotes pg133 Introduction Special interests have launched a sweeping assault on protections for public health, safety, the environment, and corporate responsibility – and unfortunately the Bush administration has given way. Crucial safeguards have been swept aside or watered down; emerging problems are being ignored; and enforcement efforts have been curtailed, threatening to render existing standards meaningless. This agenda puts special interests above the public interest, sacrificing a safer, healthier, more just America at the behest of industry lobbyists, corporate campaign contributors, and professional ideologues – many of whom the president has appointed to “regulate” the very interests they used to represent. Over the last 30 years, we have made significant progress through strong public safeguards. Our air and water are cleaner, our food, workplaces, and roads are safer, and corporations and the government are more open and accountable to the public. These protections have saved thousands upon thousands of lives and improved the quality of life for all Americans – without hobbling industry or the economy. Nonetheless, significant problems remain. Every year, more than 40,000 people die on our nation’s highways. Foodborne illnesses kill an estimated 7,000 and sicken 76 million. Nearly 6,000 workers die as a result of injury on the job, with an additional 50,000 to 60,000 killed by occupational disease. And asthma – linked to air pollution – is rising dramatically, afflicting 17 million, including six million children. We should address these problems, and others, by building on past successes. Instead, as detailed in this report, the Bush administration has reversed course. Specifically, the administration has: • Weakened or repealed a host of important safeguards. Within months of taking office, the Bush administration moved to kill or weaken a host of Clinton-era health, safety, and environmental protections – including restrictions on hard rock mining, new energy efficiency standards, and ergonomics rules to protect workers, just to name a few. Over the last three years, this procession has not let up. From giveaways to the timber industry to the slashing of overtime pay to the repeal of food labeling requirements, the Bush administration has consistently put narrow corporate interests over the broader public good. • Asserted White House powers to block agency efforts to protect the public and environment. The administration has sometimes been forced to act because of statutory or judicial requirements. In these cases, John Graham, administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), an obscure but powerful office inside the White House Office of Management and Budget, has stepped in and provided a roadblock. In one highly dubious case that drew a stinging rebuke from a federal appeals court, Graham forced the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to adopt a less protective standard – favored by automobile manufacturers – for warning drivers of under-inflated tires, which are linked to thousands of injuries and more than 100 deaths a year. OIRA has also substantially weakened a host of new EPA standards, including proposals to limit construction runoff (the largest source of pollution in U.S. coastal waters), cut diesel emissions from large ships and tankers, and protect the trillions of fish that are sucked up and killed each year by power plants, which use rivers, estuaries, and oceans to cool their systems. At the same time, Graham has pushed a host of policy changes that make it more difficult for agencies to promulgate new health, safety and environmental standards. This includes new emphasis on monetizing the benefits of prospective regulation, frequently an impossible task; guidelines that allow industry to challenge the information that supports regulation; and a plan that would allow OIRA to demand industry- dominated “peer review,” which could be used to grind regulatory agencies to a halt. • Failed to address regulatory gaps. The administration has refused to update and strengthen existing standards, address regulatory gaps, or take on new emerging problems. For example, of the three “significant” standards completed by EPA over the administration’s