Online Privacy, Food Safety and Unemployment Benefits
1. CONSUMER
The Senate Commerce Committee prepares for a hearing on consumer online privacy.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Information Policy Analyst Ryan Radia on privacy legislation that Congress is already considering.
“Compliance costs stemming from the bill’s onerous mandates will seriously harm Internet entrepreneurs who rely on smart, responsible data collection to better market their products and cater to their customers’ needs. In the dynamic information economy, saddling the private sector with byzantine rules is no recipe for fostering growth and innovation. Hypocritically, the legislation exempts America’s worst privacy violators – federal and state agencies.”
2. HEALTH
Environmental groups sue to compel the Food and Drug Administration to ban the chemical bispehol A, or BPA.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Food Safety Policy Gregory Conko on why the activists are wrong about BPA.
“For more than 50 years, BPA has been an important additive that helps make the plastics used in everything from soda bottles and plastic storage containers to medical devices and children’s toys tough yet flexible. It is also used in the lining of food cans to prevent spoilage that can lead to bacterial contamination and the risk of botulism. BPA is one of the most thoroughly tested chemicals of all time. And regulatory authorities from around the world, including the FDA, have judged BPA to be safe at the very low levels at which it is used, and to which consumers are exposed.”
3. FINANCE
President Obama signs an extension of federal unemployment benefits.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Journalism Fellow Ryan Young on the perverse incentives of continuing to extend payments for unemployed workers.
“[New York Times columnist] Paul Krugman is at a loss to explain why some people oppose extending unemployment benefits. One reason people hold such an opinion is that when government subsidizes something, there tends to be more of it. The more government subsidizes unemployment, the more people will indulge in it for longer periods of time.”