In a blistering broadside against regulated industries, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said powerful special interests have co-opted the regulatory process and are able to convince regulators to shape rules in their favor.

"Thanks to corporate influence, the rulemaking process often becomes the place where strong, clear laws go to die," Warren told the audience of a Regulatory Capture Forum sponsored by the Administrative Conference of the United States in Washington Thursday.

Warren, who has pushed for a more stringent regulatory regime, said the existing rulemaking process allows interest groups to tilt the scales in their favor at every stage. She said, for instance, industry groups deluge federal agencies with comments on proposed rules in an orchestrated attempt to delay the final regulations.