Final Days of the Bush Administration 6

A rule approved by the White House after the election
would ease constraints on oil shale development in the West.
(By Ed Andrieski -- Associated Press)

Source: "At the Last Minute, a Raft of Rules: Bush White House Approves Regulations on Environmental, Security Matters," R. Jeffrey Smith and Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post, November 30, 2008.

In the past month the Bush administration has approved 61 new regulations on environmental, security, social and commercial matters that it estimates will have an economic impact exceeding $1.9 billion annually. Some examples:

A rule approved by the White House three days after the presidential election, for example, would ease constraints on environmentally damaging oil shale development throughout the West, despite objections from Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) and a majority of the state's congressional delegation.....

A controversial new Health and Human Services rule approved in late October, for example, cuts an estimated $2 billion in state Medicaid reimbursements for outpatient services. State officials had complained that it would jeopardize dental care for children, certain lab tests and speech and occupational therapy......

A controversial Justice Department rule approved Nov. 19 orders accelerated judicial review for death sentences. Legal groups had argued that speeding up executions makes errors more likely.

Some draft regulations have recently been disapproved.

On Nov. 19, the OMB ordered the Energy Department to kill new regulations that would have forced the federal government to buy more-energy-efficient lights, appliances, and heating and cooling systems. Daniel J. Weiss, climate strategy director at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, called that retreat from a 2005 requirement "unbelievable."

The White House also ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to withdraw a new regulation mandating that truck manufacturers install equipment to monitor vehicle pollution. It blocked the Department of Veterans Affairs from issuing new promised "user-friendly" guidance on burial and survivors benefits.

Fortunately, the Bush administration could not yet finish its work on some regulations

including a regulation inhibiting the ability of Congress to halt logging, mining, and oil and gas extraction on public lands. Another rule would allow federal agencies to proceed with development projects without undergoing independent scientific review under the Endangered Species Act.

Regulations deemed to have an impact estimated at more than $100 million a year take legal effect after 60 days. Thus the Bush administration wanted to announce many new regulations more than 60 days before Obama takes office on January 20th.

Once the new rules take the form of law, Democrats can undo them only by three complicated means: through a new regulatory rulemaking that would probably take years; through congressional amendments to underlying laws; or through special, fast-track resolutions of disapproval approved by the House and Senate within a few months after the start of the new congressional session on Jan. 6.

Comment: Fortunately the Democratic Congress is already preparing to repeal some of these regulations, and one assumes that the Obama administration will reconsider some of the useful regulations that the Bush administration tried to kill. We think of the outgoing president as a "lame duck", and perhaps this duck is going to leave a very large mess as it limps out. JAD