Prepare yourself for a tidal wave of rhetoric from Republicans about President Obama and "job-killing" regulations for the next five and a half months. That's roughly how long the Obama administration has to complete some of its most ambitious regulatory efforts. And there are plenty of them, nearly 4,000 and some of them are, quite literally, life and death.
That means a full court press at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to reduce exposure limits for silica, a chemical used widely in construction and fracking that can cause cancer when inhaled; at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, to require more small-scale gun sellers to perform background checks; and at the Food and Drug Administration, to make food manufacturers disclose on product labels how much sugar they add to cranberry juice.
Much of this work will be carried out in the coming months by career bureaucrats working in the bowels of federal agencies, but the cumulative effect adds up to something larger: A final-year sprint by a president intent on using executive power to improve the lives of American workers and consumers — in many instances over loud objections from the businesses that will have to pay for it.
The work must be done swiftly in most cases because any regulation finalized after May 17 or thereabouts risks being blocked by Congress.
The May 17 deadline reflects the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 law that gives Congress 60 days after a regulation is implemented to veto it. The president can veto Congress's veto. But that's 60 legislative days they have to act in, which means they would effectively have most of the rest of the year to act on anything completed after mid-May. They could push their votes of disapproval to the end of the year and into the next presidential administration. Which, if it's Republican, would let them die.
Of the nearly 4,000 regulations, the latest is expected to be an effort to require more gun sellers to be licensed, and thus be required to do background checks on buyers no matter where they're selling the weapons. There are a few other tweaks to existing regulations the administration could be looking at, as well as finalizing a rule from August, 2014 that both licensed dealers and manufacturers report guns stolen in transit to a buyer as missing.
Reducing the exposure of workers to crystalline silica is something the Occupation Safety and Health Administration has been fighting the construction and foundry industries over for decades. At issue is lung cancer, and by OSHA's estimate, 600 lives annually. They proposed a rule in September, 2013 and are pushing to finalize it quickly.
The Department of Labor also has an effort to protect a vulnerable population, with a rule that would require financial advisers to provide investment opportunities to seniors based only the customer's best interest. That seems like something a good financial adviser would already to, but many get fees and commissions for steering investors to investments. Meaning they have every incentive looking out for their own bottom line rather than the customer's financial security.
Others include helping consumers be better informed about what they're eating—how much sugar is in processed foods, for example—and how much they're eating by making nutrition labels that use realistic portion sizes. Because who really considers half a cup of ice cream a serving?
Most of the industries involved oppose pretty much every one of these because they'll cost money. And when it comes down to it, money is worth a lot more to them than actual human lives.