Information about the vote from special interest groups and other information providers in our Report Cards:
Public Citizen Congress Watch
Confirmation of John Graham to be Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.
This vote was on whether to confirm Bush nominee John Graham as Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA). As OIRA Administrator, Graham acts as the gatekeeper of federal agency rulemaking and wields enormous control over all major health, safety and environmental standards. Public Citizen opposed Graham’s confirmation because of his strong ties to regulated industry and his regulatory methodology, which undermines strong government safeguards.
Confirmed.League of Conservation Voters
Graham Nomination.
Few presidential nominees generated more controversy than John Graham, President Bush's pick to head the Information and Regulatory Affairs Office of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
As director of the industry-funded Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, Graham used a biased approach to risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis to argue against regulations protecting millions of Americans—including restrictions on toxic substances like dioxin, arsenic, and nuclear waste. Graham's work at the center encouraged the use of risk assessment techniques that downplayed the importance of data on future deaths from diseases such as cancer and blurred the distinction between different types of risk such as those that are voluntary and those that come from pollution. Graham also helped to develop proposals for environmental rollbacks that were a part of the so-called regulatory reform portions of the 1995 Contract with America.
The OMB Information and Regulatory Affairs office has a powerful role in establishing new regulations in every federal agency. Environmental, health and labor advocates, citing concerns that Graham would use far-reaching regulatory reviews to favor business interests and undermine public health and environmental protections, mounted a campaign against his nomination with the help of key members of the Senate including Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL).
The Senate voted to confirm Graham to the OMB post. Since assuming his post, Graham's actions have begun to bear out the fears of his critics: in a year-end report to Congress, he flagged a list of so-called “outmoded or outdated” regulations that he is targeting for change or elimination. His list includes the new rule to reduce levels of arsenic in drinking water and the new source review rule under the Clean Air Act.
League of Private Property Voters
Graham Nomination.
Confirmation of President
Bush's nomination of John D. Graham to be
administrator of the Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management
and Budget. Graham will restore regulatory
sanity to the federal government after eight
years of Clinton-Gore.
Confirmed.International Union, UAW
Senate Confirms Graham for Key Regulatory Position.
The UAW and our allies in the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards strongly opposed the nomination of John Graham to be administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget in the Bush administration, a sensitive position with wide ranging powers over key federal regulations. During the hearings on Graham’s nomination, we documented his lengthy history of leading the opposition to regulations that protect workplace health and safety and the environment. Nevertheless, the Senate ultimately confirmed Graham.Service Employees International Union
Graham Nomination (PN 213).
The Senate confirmed the nomination of John D. Graham to be administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget. Graham is known for his strong anti-regulatory views, and has argued that a strict cost benefit analysis should override other goals in establishing workplace standards. The nomination was passed.