Industries seeking more regulation

WASHINGTON — After years of favoring the hands-off doctrine of the Bush administration, some of the nation's biggest industries are pushing for something they have long resisted: new federal regulations.

For toys and cars, antifreeze and fireworks, popcorn, produce and cigarettes and light bulbs, among other products, industry groups or major manufacturers are calling for additional federal health, safety and environmental mandates.

Some of those industries are abandoning years of efforts to block such measures, often in alliance with the Bush administration, which pledged to ease what it views as costly, unnecessary rules.

The shift by some industry groups is motivated by a confluence of self-interests: growing competition from inexpensive imports that do not meet voluntary standards, and a desire to head off liability lawsuits and pre-empt tough state laws or legal actions that were a response to laissez-faire Bush administration policies.

Concerns that Democrats could soon expand their control in Washington also have prompted manufacturers or producers to seek regulations that they consider the least burdensome, regulatory experts say.

Rick Melberth, director of regulatory policy at OMB Watch, a Washington group that tracks federal regulatory actions, said, "I have never before seen so many industries joining a push for regulation.

"What we need to watch closely is if this will achieve a real increase in standards and public protections or simply serve corporate interests."

Some industries and consumer groups are aligned in seeking the same regulations, though perhaps for different reasons.

"It's definitely a strange-bedfellow situation," said Sarah Klein, a lawyer at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, which is seeking, along with grocery stores and produce growers, new requirements to prevent food-borne illnesses.

Trade groups representing makers of antifreeze, upholstered furniture and all-terrain vehicles, which had long opposed federal regulations, are pushing the Bush administration for rules that consumer advocates say inadequately address safety or environmental concerns.

Federal agencies and the White House have responded to regulatory proposals in varying ways, with some agencies quickly endorsing them and others deferring action or moving to block them.

Susan Dudley, head of the White House Office of Management and Budget division that oversees administration regulatory policy, said she was not sure if the number of requests for federal regulations from industry groups was rising.

But industry officials, consumer groups and regulatory experts agree there has been a recent surge of requests for new regulations, and one reason they give is the Bush administration's willingness to include provisions that would block consumer lawsuits in state and federal courts.

Such pre-emption clauses were included, for example, in a drug-label rule issued by the Food and Drug Administration in 2006 and in a new fire-prevention standard for mattresses imposed by the Consumer Product Safety Commission in July, said David Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center.

The pre-emptions bar consumers from filing liability claims in courts and supersede any tougher state regulations — extremely valuable protections for a major manufacturer, Vladeck said. "This is Christmas," he said of industry. "This is their wish list."

Concerns about competition have led to other proposals.

After a series of recalls this year, for example, U.S. toymakers recently asked the federal government to allow the Consumer Product Safety Commission to require premarket safety testing of all toys.

The all-terrain vehicle (ATV) industry for years opposed mandatory standards dictating the way they build the machines. But the industry changed course as it lost market share to lower-priced Chinese-made ATVs that do not meet voluntary standards, including some with inadequate brakes and top speeds that exceed guidelines.

"When you move from voluntary to mandatory, you give the government policing power to make sure that products on the market meet safety standards, so we are all on a level playing field," said Tim Buche, president of the Specialty Vehicle Institute of America, which represents companies that manufacture ATVs in the United States.

The willingness of state legislators to enact their own regulations or attorneys general to join to go after companies also inspired some industry groups to seek new federal regulations.

California and Oregon, for example, enacted laws requiring antifreeze manufactures to include a bitter-tasting additive to formulas to help prevent children and pets from drinking it.

That was enough to persuade the trade group to drop its opposition to a federal standard and team up with the Doris Day Animal League to propose a new mandate, which included liability protection against any claims filed related to the change in the formula. Environmental groups, though, object to the proposed solution, saying the additive could pollute water.

The slow response by the Bush administration to several proposals has been a source of frustration to some industry groups.

"We have had a very, very uphill battle trying to get regulation," said David Baker, a lawyer for the Lighter Association. The organization, representing cigarette-lighter manufacturers, has been seeking a mandatory standard because unsafe, cheap Chinese imports were flooding the market, but staff members at the Consumer Product Safety Commission recommended against such a rule, saying the number of deaths and injuries did not justify it.

Similarly, the Bush administration is opposing legislative efforts, endorsed by popcorn makers and health and labor groups, that would impose strict limits on the levels of fake butter that can be found in the air in microwave-popcorns plants. An ingredient in synthetic butter can cause deadly lung damage in production workers, but the administration says the science on the issue is not conclusive.

Last year, the nation's entire spinach crop was destroyed after contaminated spinach from one 50-acre California farm sickened nearly 200 people in 26 states, killing three people, including a Wisconsin woman.

It was the last straw for large growers, who now support mandatory safety standards. But the Department of Health and Human Services has been slow to endorse them.

"It's a little unique when both consumer groups and industry associations are out there saying that we need new regulations and the government doesn't agree," said Jenny Scott, vice president for food-safety programs of the Grocery Manufacturers Association.

Dudley, of the Office of Management and Budget, said the Bush administration was not trying to block regulation requests.

"There is no effort to delay anything," she said.