Graham stressed that the actions agencies have taken include pro-regulation initiatives like the labeling of food allergens by the Food and Drug Administration, which was championed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
Public Citizen and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals submitted several nominations. Public Citizen, which asked for regulation in the areas of food, drugs, diet supplements and auto and workplace safety, expects nothing to come of its recommendations, said the group's president, Joan Claybrook. "It's a waste of time," she said.
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Robert R.M. Verchick, a scholar with the Center for Progressive Regulation and a professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, was on the committee that peer reviewed the Graham report. He said the administration's approach is to change the rules, not the underlying laws that have created long-standing regulatory programs.
"We'll have a regulatory state that is more subterranean," Verchick said. "The Bush administration hasn't been interested in cutting back [on regulation] by statute." He noted that changing laws uses up political capital, while using the administrative process is less risky and noticeable.
Besides the 189 manufacturing-related nominations, there are other lists in the report called "Promising Regulatory Reform Proposals" and "Unfinished Business: Additional Regulatory Reforms."
The report singles out, for example, proposals for the EPA to update how it assesses cancer risks, revamp its rules on oil spills and change reporting thresholds for its Toxic Release Inventory Program, all initiatives favored by business.
Others are issues that the administration has been working on for the past four years: Getting the FDA to better define and provide recommendations on the consumption of trans fats in food and implementing an EPA rule to cut emissions of mercury and reduce pollution from coal-fired utilities -- each high on businesses' agendas.
The report also includes a long list of "Regulatory Reform Accomplishments" -- rules on preventing mad cow disease, implementation of the Medicare Prescription Drug Discount card, new terrorism safeguards, and the new hours-of-service rule for truckers, which was returned to the Department of Transportation for more work after Public Citizen won a court challenge.
