As the Bush Administration winds down it is attempting to push through last minute regulations. At the same time the Obama Transition Team is attempting to identify signing statements and regulations created by the Bush Administration, that can be immediately reversed upon Obama's taking office. Today, Politico reports about a little known law that will defeat the efforts of the Bush Administration.
A few days ago, The Washington Post published an article about all of the immediate changes Obama will be making, reversing about 200 executive orders by Bush. His transition team has been hard at work for quite some time behind the scenes:
A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.
In some instances, Obama would be quickly delivering on promises he made during his two-year campaign, while in others he would be embracing Clinton-era policies upended by President Bush during his eight years in office.
"The kind of regulations they are looking at" are those imposed by Bush for "overtly political" reasons, in pursuit of what Democrats say was a partisan Republican agenda, said Dan Mendelson, a former associate administrator for health in the Clinton administration's Office of Management and Budget. The list of executive orders targeted by Obama's team could well get longer in the coming days, as Bush's appointees rush to enact a number of last-minute policies in an effort to extend his legacy.
Obama Positioned to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions
Meanwhile, the Bush Administration is trying to ram through a lot of changes before leaving office, that will take Obama more time to undo. According to an editorial in The New York Times:
President Bush’s aides have been scrambling to change rules and regulations on the environment, civil liberties and abortion rights, among others — few for the good. Most presidents put on a last-minute policy stamp, but in Mr. Bush’s case it is more like a wrecking ball. We fear it could take months, or years, for the next president to identify and then undo all of the damage.
So Little Time, So Much Damage
Turns out that Bush Administration has made a little mistake in its planning, more specifically the timing of its efforts. Politico reports today about a little known law from the Clinton Administration called the Congressional Review Act of 1996.
Last May, White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten instructed federal agency heads to make sure any new regulations were finalized by Nov. 1. The memo didn’t spell it out, but the thinking behind the directive was obvious. As Myron Ebell of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute put it: "We’re not going to make the same mistakes the Clinton administration did."
(snip)
The law contains a clause determining that any regulation finalized within 60 legislative days of congressional adjournment is considered to have been legally finalized on the 15th legislative day of the new Congress, likely sometime in February. Congress then has 60 days to review it and reverse it with a joint resolution that can’t be filibustered in the Senate.
In other words, any regulation finalized in the last half-year of the Bush administration could be wiped out with a simple party-line vote in the Democrat-controlled Congress.
Dems eye midnight regulations reversal
Oops! Foiled again? Hopefully awareness about this little known law will help the Obama Transition Team's plans for righting the ship a little easier.