Lame duck, schlame duck, sez The Washington Post:
The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.
The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo. Some would ease or lift constraints on private industry, including power plants, mines and farms.
They're trying to get them finished as fast as possible -- the White House's deadline is tomorrow -- because a new president could block later orders, just as the Bush administration did for late-breaking Clinton regulations in early 2001. The regulations proposed by the Bush administration could be problematic for progressives on a number of levels: restrictions on family and medical leave, exemptions for power plants under the Clean Air Act, etc. There's not much that can be done to change them right now, save for filing protests during the review period, until a new president with the will to reverse the process comes into office.
This reminds me, incidentally, that while we often think of transition as a time for appointing officials, there are a lot of other components. I interviewed President Bush's transition director, Clay Johnson III (now the deputy at OMB) the other day for a story on Cabinet picks, and he mentioned to me a few other key priorities for the transfer of power besides vetting potential executive branch officials: organizing White House staff and the presidential schedule, determining the post-election message (especially key right now amid two wars and an economic crisis), organizing legislative priorities, and figuring out what kind of executive orders the president plans to issue or negate from previous administrations. This last concern will be key for dealing with these last-minute deregulation attempts.
--Tim Fernholz
