Equal treatment for regulatory science: extending the controls governing the quality of public research to private research.

The imperative that agencies use “sound science” in developing their regulations has become a major preoccupation of the political branches. In only a few years, Congress passed two appropriations riders that provide extensive new mechanisms for the public to critique the science used by agencies. The executive branch quickly followed suit, promulgating regulations to implement these two laws, as well as proceeding on its own “sound science” missions. In the space of less than one year, the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) circulated for public comment draft peer review requirements for the scientific review of agency science, and the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) launched a full scale program to improve the quality of the models it uses in regulation, as well as “Assessment Criteria” to be used by agency officials in reviewing the quality of third-party (primarily state) science. This near-obsession with the quality of regulatory science has become so serious that industry consultants sent letters to major universities