Conflicts of Interest: This Should be a No-Brainer

Silicosis is an incurable disease that results in scarring and inflammation of the lungs. It’s the sort of illness you might contract if you work in construction and are exposed to crystalline silica dust without proper safeguards.

Now, why bring this up?

Because according to Lawrence Lessig’s new piece in The Daily Beast, sixteen Republican Senators have come out against transparency for industry-funded scientific research that will influence new regulations on silica. And surprise, surprise: these Senators just happen to be beneficiaries of “a modest but significant series of contributions” from the interests who stand to gain from this lack of disclosure.

Here’s the backstory: the agency tasked with updating safety regulations for silica, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), requested that any scientific research submitted for consideration around the new rules disclose its financial backers.

Not mandated, requested.

This was apparently too much for Senator Lamar Alexander. The Tennessee politician submitted a letter to OSHA—along with fifteen of his Republican colleagues—calling into question this request for transparency. “[T]he chilling effect the financial disclosure could have seems counter to the idea of robust inclusion of a diverse set of ideas and views to inform the rule-making," explained a staffer for Alexander.

The notion, of course, is ludicrous. As The Daily Beast piece humorously (but sadly) ponders, “What’s the chill? That the shrinking violets of the cement industry will be too afraid to hire lobbyists to present their views about the (non)dangers in inhaling silica?”

But in the end, this isn’t a joke. It’s the status-quo of corruption in Washington. Lessig points to an obvious solution to this particular mess: President Obama needs to issue an executive order to mandate that “every agency accepting submissions presenting scientific analysis require the authors to include a statement of financial conflicts of interest.”

We agree. Sign on to our action and urge President Obama to make this happen. Transparency is not a cure-all for our politics. But considering how dirty our system currently is, it’s a breath of fresh air.