For nation, a day without regulations

{mosads}The shrunken Federal Register reflects a virtual stoppage of the rule-making process at federal agencies thanks to the government shutdown.

Thousands of workers from U.S. regulatory agencies have been sent home indefinitely as Congress tries to reach an agreement on legislation to restart the government. Several rule-writing agencies  — including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Consumer Product Safety Commission — are operating with fewer than 10 percent of their workforce.

Regulatory activities have fallen by the wayside, as remaining workers must limit their focus to the most crucial functions to protect lives and property. The Office of the Federal Register (OFR) has halted publication of any documents that don’t meet that criterion.

The OFR has also been hit by furloughs. No one could be reached Monday to comment on the last time the Register was published with no new regulations — though the office issued notice late Monday on a pair of minor rules to be published in Thursday’s edition.

The American Action Forum, a conservative think tank that tracks rule-making at agencies, conducted a review of the last shutdown, which spanned three weeks in late 1995 and early 1996. The review turned up three days on which the Register contained a single rule or proposed rule, but no days without a single regulation, Sam Batkins, the forum’s regulatory policy director, said Monday.  

“We believe tomorrow will be a record low, at least dating back to the 1990s,” Batkins said.

Regulators and proponents of stronger protections warn that the regulatory shutdown jeopardizes public safety and health.

“Regulations are vital for everything from protecting the environment, to maintaining public health, to ensuring workplace safety,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said. “Anything that slows down the rule-making process … is bad for American workers, consumers and families.”

But some conservatives say the reprieve from red tape is welcome, even if it doesn’t last.

Myron Ebell, director of the right-leaning Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Energy and Environment Center, said the organization was glad that “more heavy-handed and colossally expensive regulations” had been put on hold.

An extended federal government closure would delay work on a wide array of rules now in the works, including at the Labor Department, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Food and Drug Administration and the EPA.  

Republicans in Congress have long viewed the EPA with scorn, and some indicated a sense of relief that regulators would not be at their desks.

“I’m no fan of the EPA at all. So they certainly can’t perform any of their mischief if 93 percent of them are furloughed,” Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) said. “When they’re furloughed, they can’t do as much damage.”

He added that businesses in his state are “glad they don’t have the EPA constantly issuing new regulations.”

All but about 6 percent of the EPA’s 16,000 workers are being furloughed as result of the shutdown.

When the shutdown hit Tuesday, the agency was busy working on series of contentious regulations as part of President Obama’s initiative to combat climate change, including rules that would limit emissions from new and existing power plants, clarify its regulatory jurisdiction over smaller bodies of water and reduce smog.

Proponents say the measures are crucial to protecting public health.

“I’m worried about everything being delayed,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. “Every single thing.”

The shutdown will also affect a slew of other agencies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for instance, is stopping its work to track the spread of the flu.

The Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration is furloughing all but 230 of its 2,235 workers, while the Mine Safety and Health Administration is keeping only 41 percent of its staff to respond to urgent matters.

Routine inspections and other agency functions have ceased, including at the Food and Drug Administration, which is calling off routine food safety and facilities inspections and stopping laboratory research.

“You don’t have the same oversight that you would when the government’s fully funded,” said Chris Waldrop, director of the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America. “It definitely increases the risk.”

Rachel Weintraub, the institute’s legislative director, bristled at the idea that the stoppage of regulations is a positive development. She pointed to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which is down to 23 staffers from its usual 540.

“It is a dangerous statement to make that there’s any benefit to regulators who exist to protect consumers to ensure their health, safety, fairness and transparency aren’t able to do their jobs,” Weintraub said. “There is no silver lining at all.”

— This story was first posted at 9:38 a.m. and has been updated.