Regulatory Dysfunction

'Protector' Agencies in Disrepair

National headlines about tainted food, toys with lead paint, and intersex fish in the nation’s rivers might seem unrelated, but they share a common thread: the stories underlying each point to a failure of the U.S. regulatory system. 

Over the years, Congress has created five “protector agencies” to protect Americans’ safety, health, and environment. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been assigned the immense task of protecting Americans from constantly evolving and ubiquitous hazards.

These agencies have made great strides toward their goals, but their progress has been halting and their work is occasionally marred by high-profile failures. What prevents them from acting more swiftly and proactively is a multidimensional, interrelated set of problems?

• Funding shortfalls.  The five protector agencies are responsible for regulating broad sections of the economy. The FDA regulates food and medical products that together account for 25 percent of consumer spending, but its budget is less than 0.5 percent of total federal spending.

• Outmoded statutes.  The agencies’ governing laws remain basically the same while the health, safety, and environmental threats that they cover are constantly evolving with time and technology. Inflexible laws prevent the agencies from tackling tough new issues like nanotechnology and biologics.

• Political interference. Ideologically motivated political appointees too often substitute their own agenda for the judgment of agency staff when reviewing regulatory actions. That opens a door to special-interest influence over agency decisionmaking, and bad policy often results.

• Demoralized staff. Small budgets, weak laws, and political interference prevent public servants from doing their job and doing it well. As the federal workforce ages, moving into management positions or into retirement, the agencies have difficulty attracting the best and brightest new talent.

In Regulatory Dysfunction: How Insufficient Resources, Outdated Laws, and Political Interference Cripple the "Protector Agencies" (CPR White Paper 906), CPR Member Scholars Sidney Shapiro and Rena Steinzor, and CPR Policy Analyst Matthew Shudtz detail the key problems causing regulatory dysfunction in the five protector agencies, then offer some solutions. With a more positive vision of government, improved accountability mechanisms, adequate budgets, and decentralized decisionmaking, the protector agencies could be a stronger force for improving public health, safety, and the environment.

• Read Regulatory Dysfunction: How Insufficient Resources, Outdated Laws, and Political Interference Cripple the "Protector Agencies" (CPR White Paper 906), by CPR Member Scholars Sidney Shapiro and Rena Steinzor, and CPR Policy Analyst Matthew Shudtz.  Read the news release.  Read the day-of-release blog entry.
• Read about the companion CPR White Papers:  The Hidden Human and Environmental Costs of Regulatory Delay, by Catherine O’Neill, Amy Sinden, Rena Steinzor, James Goodwin, and Yee Huang; and A Return to Common Sense: Protecting Health, Safety, and the Environment Through "Pragmatic Regulatory Impact Analysis," by CPR Member Scholars Rena Steinzor, Amy Sinden, and Sidney Shapiro, and CPR Policy Analyst James Goodwin.
• Read the letter of transmittal from Rena Steinzor to OIRA Administrator Cass Sunstein over the three reports.