Collins throws support behind Bush's OIRA candidate

Wow, you're such a moderate. You're proving it more and more everyday, like right now. You're throwing your support to the most anti-regulatory candidate to ever be nominated for director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. She's got a great track record, take a look...

American Prospective

Susan Dudley has spent the last eight years as director of regulatory policy for the Mercatus Center, an industry-funded think tank. In those eight years, she has opposed regulations that would: lower the threshold for arsenic in drinking water; set more stringent fuel economy standards for automobiles; provide more information to communities on toxic releases; limit the use of snowmobiles in national parks; reduce pollution emissions from motor vehicles and heavy duty trucks; and set standards for advanced airbag technology in automobiles.

Now, Dudley may soon oversee the regulations she has spent her career criticizing. At the eve of the August congressional recess, the Bush administration announced its intention to nominate Dudley as the new regulatory czar.

If appointed, Dudley would become the new administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), a department within the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) with enormous power over health, safety, and environmental regulations. Through an obscure executive order which has never been authorized by Congress, all federal regulations deemed economically or otherwise significant, as determined by OIRA, require the approval of the agency’s administrator. The appointment of Susan Dudley would thus put a leading anti-regulatory zealot in charge of regulation.

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In commenting on a proposed rule by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) limiting the number of hours that truck drivers can be on the road without rest, for instance, Dudley claimed that the Department of Transportation had failed to “present data to support its assertion that fatigue systematically contributes to highway fatalities.” (In the final regulation, the agency apparently took the suggestions of Dudley and her industry allies to heart, weakening the standard to actually allow truck drivers to spend more hours on the road.) Dudley also argued that the EPA did not have enough information on the health effects of regulating ozone to justify setting air quality standards. Regarding the EPA’s limit on arsenic in drinking water, Dudley maintained that, “though evidence from other countries supports an association between arsenic and certain forms of cancer, the effect of exposure to the low doses present in the U.S. water supply is very uncertain, and science alone cannot determine the appropriate level [of protection]."

Ironically, Dudley has also argued against possibly the cheapest kind of regulatory intervention -- the simple release of information. Dudley claimed that releasing more information on hazardous chemicals through the Toxic Release Inventory was not justified because more information is not necessarily socially valuable. (“Even if we determine that information on the release of certain chemicals has a net social value, we cannot assume that more frequently reported information, or information on a broader range of chemicals would be more valuable.”) Dudley opposed the release of information concerning the potential consequences of leaks from chemical or industrial facilities, claiming that information “is unlikely to be of any public value.”

Cue Ms. Collins

After the hearing Collins told the press she was leaning toward supporting the nominee and expected to bring it to a committee vote during the December lame duck session.

Thanks Ms. Collins for proving to us everyday that you care about the issues here in Maine. Did you know Maine has the highest asthma rate in the country, or that we're nicknamed "America's Tailpipe"? I'm sure you do. Your approval of this candidate shows your more aligned with President Bush and his agenda than Maine's agenda. Thanks a lot.