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  • From: Socially and Ecologically Responsible Agriculture Network <seranet AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • To: seranet AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [SN] Designed to Fail: Why Regulatory Agencies Don’t Work
  • Date: Sun, 6 May 2012 08:31:28 -0400

Dear Friends and Colleagues

Designed to Fail: Why Regulatory Agencies Don’t Work by William Sanjour (1) is published today by Independent Science News
http://independentsciencenews.org/health/designed-to-fail-why- regulatory-agencies-dont-work/

Synopsis: Deepwater Horizon, the Financial System Meltdown, the Big Branch Mine explosion, BPA, Vioxx, as well as many others, were all preventable disasters characterised by the failure of government regulatory agencies. Across the board, agencies such as the FDA, EPA, SEC, OSHA, and others, are failing to fulfill their Congressional mandates of protecting the public and the environment. Repeated and systemic failures across widely varying jurisdictions suggest that the problems with effective regulation run much deeper than leadership, competence or corruption. Based on a personal 30 year struggle to protect public health from within the EPA, William Sanjour examines what typically goes wrong at regulatory agencies, and proposes some novel solutions: chief among these solutions is that the administrative powers of rule-making should be separated from those of enforcement. Separation into independent organisations of legislative and judicial functions would align regulatory activity with the intention of the US constitution and the rest of government. It would also remove a chronic and debilitating internal conflict that prevents regulation from being an effective tool of government.

Extract: "When I was writing regulations, I was told on more than one occasion to make sure I put in enough loopholes."

We hope you will circulate this important article. Please communicate, tweet, and share it with your colleagues, listserves and networks.
Apologies for any cross-posting.
Yours sincerely

Jonathan Latham

1) Mr. William Sanjour is a native of New York where he attended college at CCNY and earned a master's degree in physics at Columbia University. His career started as an operations research analyst with the Navy's "think tank," the Center for Naval Analysis. He later worked as an operations research analyst with the American Cyanamid Company and then as a management consultant for Ernst & Ernst.
In the late sixties he became involved in environmental issues as a consultant to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Several years later he accepted a position with EPA as Branch Chief in the newly established Hazardous Waste Management Division. In this capacity he supervised studies of hazardous waste damages and treatment technologies. These efforts culminated in the passage of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976, after which, Mr. Sanjour was in charge of drafting regulations for the treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste.
In 1978 the Carter administration, concerned about inflation, took steps to protect industry by removing the teeth of the hazardous waste regulatory effort. At first, Sanjour fought from within the EPA to make RCRA work in the true spirit of the legislation. The agency responded by transferring him in 1979 to a position with no duties. He then became an outspoken EPA whistleblower. He alerted Congress, environmental groups, and the press to this attack on RCRA.
He fought his transfer and after a year long legal bout, he won. In 1980 he was made head of the Hazardous Waste implementation Branch where he set up hazardous waste data management systems and wrote regulations for the transportation of hazardous waste. However, he continued to expose Agency waste, fraud and abuse. He testified in Congressional hearings several times and was active in helping grassroots environmental groups on his own time.
When Rita Lavelle (later jailed) was Assistant Administrator in the Reagan Administration, the agency retaliated by fabricating an unsatisfactory performance evaluation, the only one Mr. Sanjour ever received. This too was fought and won by Mr. Sanjour under the Agency grievance procedures.
In 1984, Mr. Sanjour took a break from Agency harassment to go on loan to the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) where he wrote a critique of EPA hazardous waste regulations which appeared in the 1985 OTA study entitled Superfund Strategy.
When he returned to EPA, the Agency had retaliated by removing him from his Branch Chief position. Assigned as a Policy Analyst, Mr. Sanjour issued regulations for procurement of recycled paper, re- refined lubricating oil, retread tires and insulation products in a period of only four years. Mr. Sanjour received an outstanding performance award for this unprecedented achievement.
Meanwhile, EPA, with the collusion of the Office of Government Ethics, issued regulations to prevent Mr. Sanjour and one other whistleblower from receiving travel expenses when addressing citizens groups on their own time. Over a four year period, this law was fought and defeated in the federal courts by the National Whistleblower Center and Sanjour v EPA now stands as a landmark decision preventing the government from silencing government employees who criticize the government.
In 1995 Mr. Sanjour was detailed, at his request, to assist the Superfund Ombudsman. Here he investigated citizen complaints against the Agency's regional offices in their implementation of the Superfund program. Although this was a position which well suited him, the failure of the Agency to cooperate in the investigations made the position pointless. After a year, he was permanently transferred to the Technology Information Office where he functioned briefly as a policy analyst in an obscure and relatively unimportant post.
Mr. Sanjour had to fight several legal battles in the Labor Department to halt the Agency's continuous harassment, all of which the Agency settled out of court. Despite his reduction in status and having to continually fight for his legal rights. Mr. Sanjour stubbornly continued his government service while assisting grassroots environmentalists and fellow whistleblowers.
Upon retirement he continues to write and speak about regulatory reform, environmental and whistleblower protection issues when he is not traveling or sailing. He presently sits on the Board of Directors of the National Whistleblowers Center.


Jonathan Latham (PhD)
Executive Director
The Bioscience Resource Project
jrlatham AT bioscienceresource.org
001-607-319-0279
Skype: jonathanlatham2

http://independentsciencenews.org/
and
http://www.bioscienceresource.org/

Mail: PO Box 6869
Ithaca 14851 NY
USA

"Good with Science"




  • [SN] Designed to Fail: Why Regulatory Agencies Don’t Work, Socially and Ecologically Responsible Agriculture Network, 05/06/2012

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