The Center for Progressive Reform works to protect the tools by which public health and safety, and the environment are protected from business. In recent years, government efforts to rein in the excesses of corporations have been hobbled by a "hollowing out" of regulatory agencies, and a full-throttle assault on individuals' right to bring suit against corporations whose products or activities cause them harm. CPR scholars file comments with regulatory agencies, testify before congressional committees, publish opinion articles, and prepare white papers and reports. These products build on the academic scholarship and research conducted by CPR scholars. CPR's work in the area of corporate liability and accountability includes:

• Assaults on Individuals' Ability to Defend their Rights in Court
  
  The myth of the "Lawsuit Crisis" has taken root, the result of years of pounding by corporate interests intent on enacting "Tort Reform" that protects them from the harm their products and practices cause. CPR works to debunk the myths surrounding the issue.
  
  
  • Read The Truth about Torts: Using Agency Preemption to Undercut Consumer Health and Safety, by William Funk, Sidney Shapiro, David Vladeck and Karen Sokol, White Paper 704, 2007. Read the news release.
    
    
  • Read The Truth about Torts: Lawyers, Guns, and Money, by Thomas O. McGarity, Douglas A. Kysar, and Karen Sokol, White Paper 603, July 2006.
    
    
  • Read "The Truth about Torts: An Insurance Crisis, Not a Lawsuit Crisis," by Thomas O. McGarity, Douglas A. Kysar, and Karen Sokol, White Paper 509, June 2005.
  
  
  
• Hollow Government
  
  Years of budget cuts and rollbacks in statutory authority have left many agencies of the federal government unable to achieve their core missions.
  
  
  • Read "The Hidden Lesson of the Vioxx Fiasco: Reviving a Hollow FDA," by Rena Steinzor and Margaret Clune, White Paper 514, October 2005.
    
    
  • Read CPR's news release on "The Hidden Lesson of the Vioxx Fiasco."
  
  
  
• Federal Preemption
  
  Increasingly, the federal government is seeking to preempt the power of states to establish environmental, health and safety standards that are more stringent than its own increasingly lax standards.
  
  
  • Read Alexandra Klass and Sandra Zellmer's op-ed on why Exxon should pay punitive damages for the Exxon Valdez disaster, despite its claim before the Supreme Court that maritime law and the Clean Water Act preempt punitive damages in tort cases. The op-ed was published the in the March 1, 2008 Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Or read their ACSBlog entry on the same subject.
    
    
  • Read Thomas O. McGarity's December 4, 2007 op-ed in the Austin American-Statesman on the Supreme Court and Riegel vs. Medtronic case.
    
    
  • Read David Vladeck's September 12, 2007 testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Bush Administration's push for agency preemption of state tort laws.
    
    
  • Read The Truth about Torts: Using Agency Preemption to Undercut Consumer Health and Safety, by William Funk, Sidney Shapiro, David Vladeck and Karen Sokol, White Paper 704, 2007. Read the news release.
    
    
  • Read Nina Mendelson's July 5, 2006 op-ed in the New York Times on the trend toward federal preemption.
    
    
  • Read Douglas Kysar's March 17, 2004 op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel on congressional efforts to preempt tort claims of corporate liability for the obesity epidemic.
    
    
  • Read CPR's White Paper, "Stealth Tort Reform: How the Bush Administration’s Aggressive Use of the Preemption Doctrine Hurts Consumers."
    
    
  • Read "Sidestepping regulations on environment, Bush ignores federalism," by Clifford Rechtschaffen, on the Administration's disavowal of federalism where the environment is concerned, published August 18, 2003 in the San Francisco Chronicle.