• Outgoing Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation chair Sheila Bair appears before the House Financial Services committee to discuss the agency's role during and after the financial crisis. Bair calls on regulators to show political courage to do their work effectively and take on weak practices and excessive risk-taking. Key quote:

"The history of the crisis shows many examples when regulators acted too late, or with too little conviction, when they failed to use authorities they already had or failed to ask for the authorities they needed to fulfill their mission. As the crisis developed, too many in the regulatory community were too slow to acknowledge the danger, and were too slow to act in addressing it. The fact is, regulators are never going to be popular or glamorous figures, whether they act in a timely manner to forestall a crisis or if they fail to act and allow it to take place. The best they can hope to achieve is the knowledge that they exercised the statutory authority entrusted to them in good faith and to its fullest effect in the interest of financial stability, without regard to the political consequences." [WATCH LIVE]

• The administrator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Edward Demarco, pushed back strongly yesterday against Rep. Jason Chaffetz's (R-Utah) proposal to make the housing finance giants open to FOIA requests. His argument: FOIA is "often explained as a means for citizens to know what their Government is up to" and Fannie and Freddie are still private companies. "They did not cease to be private legal entities when they were placed into conservatorship, nor did they become part of FHFA." As Zero Hedge points out: "Still private companies? That's the reason they are shielded? After the taxpayers shelled out $200b (and counting)? Bullshit."

• The White House released the results of its promised regulatory review and published a list of initiatives from over two dozen agencies that are designed to reduce burdens and save money. Among them, the Interior Department is reviewing outdated regulations under the Endangered Species Act. What caught your eye? Let me know.

• Has lobbying by financial institutions contributed to the financial crisis? That is the question explored in a study by three IMF economists. Among their findings: lobbying was associated with more risk-taking during 2000-'07 and bigger bailouts by the government following the financial crisis. In particular, those who lobbied the most made the riskiest loans and expanded faster than their competitors, exacerbating the housing crisis.

• Today's must-read: a great AP investigation legendary gun manufacturer Colt. The company turned to a high-powered lobbyist when it looked like it was about to lose its exclusive deal to provide combat rifles to the U.S. military. "The move highlights the importance of a contest that is the Super Bowl and World Series rolled into one for the small arms industry. The Pentagon may buy hundreds of thousands of the new carbine, which should be more accurate, lethal and reliable than the M4 used by troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. At stake is millions of dollars in business for the winner at a time when budgets are tightening and opportunities for long-term weapons contracts are dwindling."

• Congress may take up proposed legislation to apply U.S. criminal laws to federal employees and government contractors working overseas, reports Legal Times. This marks the third such attempt in the wake Blackwater security guards killed Iraqi civilians in September 2007.

• The risk of a catastrophic release of radiation from an accident at a spent nuclear fuel pool is much higher in the United States than at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi plant, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies. Spent fuel at many U.S. plants in facilities that were never designed for long-term storage exceeds that stored at the four damaged units of the Japanese plant. For example, the spent fuel in a pool at Vermont Yankee plant exceeds the combined total in the pools at the four troubled reactors at the Fukushima site. There are more than 30 million spent fuel rods in these storage pools in the U.S., the "largest concentration of radioactivity on the planet," according to author Robert Alvarez. The institute recommends moving most of the spent fuel from pools to dry air-cooled steel casks, which is a safer storage method.

• In a split vote on a contentious proposal, the Securities Exchange Commission decided to allow whistleblowers to be rewarded between 10 percent and 30 percent of the sanctions collected in enforcement cases. "The SEC refused to buckle under tremendous pressure from Wall Street lobbyists led by the Chamber of Commerce who worked overtime trying to undermine historic corporate whistleblower protections," said National Whistleblowers Center director Stephen Kohn. Earlier, the agency's enforcement chief Robert Khuzami testified that they have seen an uptick in "high-quality tips" and complaints since the Dodd-Frank Law and said that the SEC is not aware of any empirical data suggesting that internal compliance will be undermined by not having an internal reporting requirement. "The SEC refused to buckle under tremendous pressure from Wall Street lobbyists led by the Chamber of Commerce who worked overtime trying to undermine historic corporate whistleblower protections," Kohn said.

• When drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis lobbied the Food and Drug Administration to delay approval of a genetic drug that would cut into the profits of its blockbuster blood-thinner Lovenox, it relied on some heavy hitters, including the Society of Hospital Medicine and the North American Thrombosis Forum. Among those pleading its case before the agency was Dr. Victor Tapson, who sent a letter on behalf of the American College of Chest Physicians -- unmentioned was that Tapson has been paid $260,000 by Sanofi between 2007 and 2010, according to a new report released by the Senate Finance Committee this morning.

• AMD Industries in Cicero, Ill. was fined $1.2 million for exposing five workers to asbestos hazards without protection by the Occupational and Safety Health Administration. That includes 19 willful citations -- which refers to violations that demonstrate an intentional disregard for the law or "plain indifference to employee safety and health."

• Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe is challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's $1.2 billion budget request because he claims it has more than $2 billion left over from the 2011 budget.

• The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is offering regulatory relief to banks and financial institutions that "work constructively with borrowers experiencing difficulties beyond their control because of damage caused by the severe weather around the country.

• Here it is -- the animated GIF of Elizabeth Warren's reaction to being called a liar by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) during a contentious end-of-hearing dispute over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee.

• A House GOP proposal is seeking $285 million in cuts to the Food and Drug Administration, an 11 percent reduction from FY 2011, just as the agency moves to implement an ambitious new food safety law, reports Food Safety News. The proposal would also reduce the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service budget by $35 million. Proponents claim the reduced funding level will not prevent "critical meat, poultry and egg product inspection and testing activities, and supports an expansion of a poultry inspection pilot project that will lead to improving food safety."

• How to decipher Dodd-Frank's alphabet soup: Bloomberg Government provides this helpful glossary on everything from "camels" ("Rating given to banks based on capital adequacy, asset quality, management practices, earnings performance, liquidity and sensitivity to market risk") to "zombie banks" ("A financial institution with negative net worth that continues to operate through federal assistance").

• AT&T; spent $6.8 million in the first quarter of 2011, hiring 71 experts to push through their merger with T-Mobile.

• The nuclear industry was dealt a major setback on Friday when its regulator announced that it will delay the approval of the Westinghouse AP1000, the most popular reactor design pending before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Greg Jaczko, the chairman of the NRC, said the agency has more questions about the design's shield building and the "peak accident pressures expected within containment."

• In the wake of last year's 'phantom recall' scandal, when Johnson & Johnson hired contractors to yank drugs such as Motrin off of store shelves rather than conduct a proper recall, the company's executives were hauled before Congress and agreed to a consent decree with the Food and Drug Administration. Now, House Oversight chairman Darrell Issa is upset that the FDA has failed to take "promised and necessary corrective actions" at its San Juan office, where the scandal unfolded, Pharmalot reports.

• The commission set up by Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett (R) to generate proposals for the responsible development of the Marcellus Shale, the giant underground rock formation that contains untapped natural gas reserves, is made up of many industry representatives and campaign donors, according to this interactive Pittsburgh Post-Gazette graphic.

• The Environmental Protection Agency is one of the most-lobbied agencies, a striking fact considering its small size relative to behemoths like the Pentagon (via Sunlight Foundation).

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com.

Welcome to "The Watchdog," which will keep a close eye on regulatory agencies and how their actions impact the lives of everyday Americans. Though the rules and regulations they write -- from determining how much arsenic is allowable in your drinking water to whether your favorite TV show can drop the F-bomb in primetime -- affect all of us, their deliberations and the way that lobbyists influence their decisions receive very little coverage. To make sense of these debates, follow the implementation of health care and financial reform and decipher the minutia of the Federal Register, "The Watchdog" is on the case. If you have any tips, send them to marcus@huffingtonpost.com

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