Center for Study of Responsive Law

The Center for Study of Responsive Law studies governmental agencies.

According to the Center for Study of Responsive Law (or CSRL), this consumer-advocacy nonprofit organization "supports and conducts a wide variety of research and educational projects to encourage the political, economic and social institutions of this country to be more aware of the needs of the citizen-consumer. Reports are published by the CSRL to inform the interested citizen-consumer.

History

Ralph Nader founded the Center for Study of Responsive Law in 1968 to educate and empower citizens. Nader began organizing students and volunteers to investigate the Federal Trade Commission in 1968 and described the agency as ""fat with cronyism, torpid through an inbreeding unusual even for Washington, manipulated by the agents of commercial predators, impervious to governmental and citizen monitoring." This led Nader to found the CSRL, which focuses on environmental, consumer and worker health and safety issues. The CSRL has published many books and reports, hosted conferences and organized public projects.

Projects

The CSRL organizes many public projects. The "Government Purchasing Project" was established to protect the environment and human health by encouraging responsible government use of its purchasing power relative to safe, cost-effective and energy-efficient environmental projects. The Resource Conservation Project is dedicated to forest conservation and recycling. According to Discoverthenetworks.org, the League of Fans is "a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to encourage social and civic responsibility; local and global awareness; citizen and fan friendliness; health, safety and inclusiveness in sports culture.The project's "De-Commercialization" provision complains that "the ongoing commercialization of sports is shifting the primary focus of games away from showcasing skill and competition, and toward simply creating another forum to sell more things"

Publications

The CSRL began its investigations of "corrupt" governmental agencies and published the findings for the public. One of the earliest publications, "The Interstate Commerce Omission" by Robert C. Fellmeth, described the regulation of trucking and railroad rates by the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1970. "The Chemical Feast" was published to expose the Food and Drug Administration's oversight of the food industry. Since its founding, the CSRL has continued to publish its findings to expose similar problems in governmental agencies to the public.

Funding

According to DiscovertheNetwork.org, "the CSRL receives financial support from the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Public Safety Research Institute, the Safety Systems Foundation, the Abraham Fuchsberg Family Foundation, the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, the PLACE Fund, the Fannie Mae Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York."

Headquarters

The office of the CSRL is staffed by 25 people and is located in Washington D.C.

References

• History Of The Center for Study Of Responsive Law
• Discoverthenetwroks.org; "Center for Study of Responsive Law"