‘Diane Katz’ Archives
CFPB Wields New Powers with Director
DIANE KATZ, HERITAGE FOUNDATION Within hours of Richard Cordray assuming the role of director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), agency officials began exercising their newly expanded powers. Their immediate target is all manner of “nonbank” financial services used by millions of households. While proponents contend that [...]
Obama Confirms Unaccountability of Consumer Bureau
Diane Katz, Heritage Foundation By circumventing the lawful confirmation process, President Obama’s attempted “recess appointment” today of Richard Cordray to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) demonstrates the very unaccountability that pervades the agency and requires reform. Although operational now, the CFPB has [...]
DOJ and FCC: Making the Wrong Call on Wireless Deal
Diane Katz, Heritage Foundation It’s rather remarkable, really, how willing federal bureaucrats are to block business deals that they speculate will cause price hikes and yet give nary a thought to foisting more than a trillion dollars annually in regulatory costs on the public. That’s one takeaway from the news that AT&T has [...]
CAFE Standards: Fleet-Wide Regulations Costly, Unwarranted
Diane Katz, Heritage Foundation Automakers would be required to double current fleet-wide fuel economy by 2025 under regulations proposed last week by the Obama Administration. Advocates contend that this crackdown on the internal combustion engine would reduce Americans’ “dependence on oil” and cut emissions of so-called greenhouse [...]
Dairy Security Act Would Milk Taxpayers
Diane Katz, Heritage Foundation As the congressional “super committee” grapples with deficit reduction, all manner of spending is under scrutiny. A small group of farm-state lawmakers is proposing an overhaul of dairy subsidies that would supposedly reduce outlays by $131 million over 10 years. That is just a quarter of the dollars doled [...]
Top Nanny Race Tightens
Diane Katz, Heritage Foundation As Friday draws near, two contenders are neck-and-neck for the title of Nanny of the Week. A dark horse may yet emerge, what with so much Big Government on the loose. But leading the pack at present are Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). First Snyder. The [...]
The Diet Dictators’ Attack on Consumer Choice and Free Speech
Diane Katz, Heritage Foundation Federal regulators recently unleashed plans intended to radically restrict food choices for American children. Nutritional staples such as Cheerios, peanut butter, and yogurt are verboten under the proposed standards, which effectively constitute a government-regulated grocery list. Proponents contend they have [...]
President Obama’s Regulatory Dust-Up
Diane Katz, Heritage Foundation Rock Katschnig, a corn and soybean farmer in Prophetstown, Illinois, spoke for millions of business owners this week when making a polite appeal to President Obama: “Please don’t challenge us with more rules and regulations from Washington, D.C., that hinder us.” The scene: A “town hall” forum on the [...]
A Myopic Regulatory Vision
Diane Katz, Heritage Foundation Optometrists and ophthalmologists aren’t seeing eye to eye these days on the proper role of government. So contentious is the issue that divides them, in fact, that West Virginia legislator Don Perdue says he spent 16 hours locked in his office “trying to keep (them) from clawing each others’ eyeballs [...]
Proxy Access Rule: Appeals Court Rejects SEC Regulation
Diane Katz, Heritage Foundation In an important victory for free enterprise, a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has struck down the regulatory hijacking of corporate board elections. Authorized by the Dodd–Frank statute, the so-called proxy access rule crafted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [...]
Red Tape Rising: A 2011 Mid-Year Report
James Gattuso and Diane Katz, Heritage Foundation Abstract: Following a record year of rulemaking, the Obama Administration is continuing to unleash more costly red tape. In the first six months of the 2011 fiscal year, 15 major regulations were issued, with annual costs exceeding $5.8 billion and one-time implementation costs approaching $6.5 [...]
New Evidence Reveals Vast Powers of Consumer Finance Bureau
By Diane Katz, Heritage Foundation Tucked into the 232 pages of the May 31 Federal Register—the daily catalog of new regulation—was glaring evidence that the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will exercise nearly unlimited power over how Americans obtain credit and loans and manage their money. That it will do so [...]
Tales of the Tape: Regulators Going Off On Microwave Ovens
Diane Katz, Heritage Foundation At the behest of Congress, the Department of Energy (DOE) has “invested” several years and considerable tax dollars in devising restrictions on the amount of electricity it takes to run virtually every household appliance. Alas, a regulator’s work is never done. Having assumed control over the energy we [...]
How Many Hazmat Suits Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?
Tales of the Red Tape # 8 Diane Katz, Heritage Foundation Lest anyone tell you that the phase-out of (non-toxic) incandescent light bulbs will be hassle-free (other than hugely expensive), here is the directive from the Environmental Protection Agency for ridding your home of toxic vapor in the event you or a loved one (or relative) [...]
