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Regulation as Social Justice Library of Resources

Responsive Government Defending Safeguards

In September 2019, CPR released Regulation as Social Justice: A Crowdsourced Blueprint for Building a Progressive Regulatory System, a report that synthesizes recommendations from more than 60 progressive advocates into a comprehensive, action-oriented agenda for rebuilding the regulatory system. To increase the usefulness of the report, CPR has created this web-based library of materials developed by CPR Member Scholars and staff along with our progressive allies that provides more details on the reforms included the report. We will continuously update this library as additional materials become available.

Broken legislative process:

– Thomas McGarity et al, Earmarking Away the Public Interest: Anti-Reg Riders Benefit Polluting Industries (Center for Progressive Reform)

– Center for Progressive Reform, The Congressional Review Act: CRA by the Numbers

Weakened agencies:

– Sidney Shapiro et al., Regulatory Dysfunction: How Insufficient Resources, Outdated Laws, and Political Interference Cripple the ‘Protector Agencies’ (Center for Progressive Reform) [PDF]

– Dr. Molly Jahn et al., Are Declines in U.S. Federal Workforce Capabilities Putting Our Government at Risk of Failing [PDF]

Broken rulemaking process:

– Nicholas Bagley, The Procedural Fetish, Law and Political Economy Blog

– Public Citizen, The Federal Rulemaking Process [PDF]

– Catherine O’Neill et al., The Hidden Human and Environmental Costs of Regulatory Delay (Center for Progressive Reform) [PDF]

– Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Corporate Capture of the Rulemaking Process, The Regulatory Review

– Wendy Wagner, Administrative Law, Filter Failure, and Information Capture, Duke Law Journal

– Center for Progressive Reform, Politicizing the Regulatory Process: OIRA’s Meetings with Industry Skew Its Review of Regulations

– Center for Progressive Reform, Advocating for (Not So) Small Business: Is SBA’s Advocacy Doing the Bidding of Big Business?

– Wendy Wagner et al., Rulemaking in the Shade: An Empirical Study of EPA’s Air Toxic Regulations, Administrative Law Review

– Phillip Bump, Sustain the Swamp: Hundreds of Lobbyists Swim Through Trump’s Administration, Washington Post (reviewing research by American Bridge 21st Century)

– Public Citizen, Tracking Trump’s Corporate Cronies

Politicized science:

– Wendy E. Wagner & Rena Steinzor, Deconstructing Regulatory Science, The Regulatory Review

– Union of Concerned Scientists, The State of Science in the Trump Era: Damage Done, Lessons Learned, and a Path to Progress

– Wendy Wagner et al., Whose science? A New Era in Regulatory “Science Wars”: Proposed Reforms Show a Clear Break with Historical Norms, Science [PDF]

Bad economics:

– Amy Sinden, The Cost-Benefit Boomerang, The American Prospect

– Amy Sinden and James Goodwin, Understanding EPA’s Fuzzy Math, The Hill

Broken judiciary:

– American Constitution Society, Dark Money and the Courts: The Right-Wing Takeover of the Judiciary

– David H. Gans, How Scalia Made It Difficult to Bring Cases to Court, The Atlantic

– Earthjustice, Tracking Congress’ Attacks on Access to Justice

– Center for Progressive Reform, The Truth About Torts: The Campaign for ‘Tort Reform’ Undercuts Vital Protections

– American Association for Justice, Forced Arbitration

– Center for Justice and Democracy, Fact Sheet: Caps On Compensatory Damages: A State Law Summary

Reforming Congress:

– James Goodwin, By Fixing Congress, the Planned H.R. 1 Could Strengthen Public Protections, Too, Center for Progressive Reform’s CPRBlog

– Bianca Majumder, Congress Should Revive the Office of Technology Assessment, Center for American Progress

– Paul N. Van de Water, Building a Better Budget Process, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ Office the Charts Blog

– Thomas McGarity et al., The Congressional Review Act: The Case for Repeal (Center for Progressive Reform) [PDF]

Stronger agencies:

– U.S. Government Accountability Office, The Future of the Federal Workforce, Watchblog

– Craig Holman & Caralyn Esser, Slowing the Federal Revolving Door: Reforms to Stop Lobbying Activity by Former Public Officials and States that Lead the Way (Public Citizen)

Reforming the rulemaking process:

– Sidney A. Shapiro, Rulemaking Inaction and the Failure of Administrative Law, Duke Law Journal [PDF]

– James Goodwin, Warren’s Bill Presents Progressive Vision for Rulemaking Reform, The Regulatory Review

– James Goodwin, Can Hip Hop Save Rulemaking?, The Regulatory Review

– Wendy E. Wagner & Rena Steinzor, A Real, Not Faux, Transparency Proposal for Regulatory Science, The Regulatory Review

Better enforcement:

– Center for Progressive Reform, Citizen Suits: Empowering Workers to Sue Employers over Hazards

– Center for Progressive Reform, Shaming Scofflaw Employers and Industries

– Martha T. McCluskey et al., Preventing Death and Injury on the Job: The Criminal Justice Alternative in State Law (Center for Progressive Reform) [PDF]

– Rena Steinzor, Federal White Collar Crime: Six Case Studies Drawn from Ongoing Prosecutions to Protect Public Health, Worker and Consumer Safety, and the Environment (Center for Progressive Reform) [PDF]

– Martha T. McCluskey et al., OSHA’s Discount on Danger: OSHA Should Revise Its Informal Settlement Policies to Maximize the Deterrent Value of Citations (Center for Progressive Reform) [PDF]

Empowering the public:

– George Wyeth et al., The Impact of Citizen Environmental Science in the United States, Environmental Law Reporter

– Center for Progressive Reform, Whistleblower Protection Laws: Deputizing Workers to Identify and Report Hazards

Reforming the courts:

– Martha McCluskey et al., Civil Justice in the United States: How Citizen Access to the Courts Is Essential to a Fair Economy (Center for Progressive Reform) [PDF]

– Martha McCluskey et al., Regulating Forced Arbitration in Consumer Financial Services: Re-Opening the Courthouse Doors to Victimized Consumers (Center for Progressive Reform) [PDF]

Strengthening state protections:

– Alice Kaswan, A Broader Vision for Climate Policy: Lessons from California, San Diego Journal of Climate and Energy Law [PDF]

– K. Sabeel Rahman, Democracy, Regulation, and Participatory Governance

Responsive Government Defending Safeguards