Letters have been dispatched from the desk of Environmental Protection Agency administrator Carol Browner in a last-ditch effort to garner support for the agency's proposed National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone and particulate matter, according to Citizens for a Sound Economy, a Washington-based free-market advocacy group. "Given the enormous unpopularity of the proposed regulations, Administrator Browner has found it necessary to make promises of leniency -- promises that could very well be illegal," said CSE vice president Matt Kibbe.

Is the Environmental Protection Agency in retreat? Or is it merely engaging in political spin-control? The agency's announcement that it would ask a federal court to extend the public comment period for its proposed rules governing tiny dust and bacteria particles -- which the agency claims pose a significant threat to public health -- clearly results from a public backlash against a hurried process designed to shut out the public and stifle a serious debate over the merits of EPA's new rule.

Carol Browner, administrator of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), is wrong in claiming that her agency's proposal to impose more restrictive standards on air quality is "not about outdoor barbecues or lawnmowers" or "whether we can have fireworks on the Fourth of July," according to Dr. Wayne Brough, director of research at Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE).

Ill and hospitalized Americans will end up paying nearly $1 billion more in new taxes under President Clinton's proposed FY98 budget, according to an analysis by Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE). The taxes are in the form of so-called "user fees" paid to the federal Food & Drug Administration (FDA) first by health care businesses but ultimately passed along to consumers.

In 1996, Congress and President Clinton enacted legislation that requires health insurance companies to provide -- and requires consumers to buy -- certain health benefits. These mandated benefits were hailed as a "consensus" approach to health care reform. Today, a number of additional health benefit mandates are being proposed. This paper discusses how mandated benefits do more harm than good.

In March, 1994, President Clinton signed his Administration's education "reform" legislation, the "Goals 2000: Educate America Act" into law. The education package sets out a number of goals to be achieved over a period of six years, including the following:

There are serious, legitimate concerns surrounding outcome-based education (OBE). In principle, it sounds good. In practice, however, OBE can be used to undermine parental authority and traditional moral and religious beliefs. This explains why much of the criticism of OBE has come largely from parents' rights groups.

During testimony today before the Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, Citizens for a Sound Economy Director of Research Michael Becker advocated modifying, and and eventually eliminating entirely, the sugar program. “Due to the sugar program,” testified Becker, “CSE’s members, along with consumers in general, each year pay excessive prices for food simply to enrich the small group of sugar farmers and corn refiners who benefit from the sugar program.”