Executive Order 13422
On January 18, 2007, President Bush issued Executive Order 13422 whose purpose is to give the "White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy." So states Robert Pear in a story, "Bush Directive Increases Sway on Regulation," in today's New York Times. The new policy will require "that each agency...have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president's priorities." Through the order, Bush is signalling that even though the Democrats took control of Congress, he still has ways to flex his muscles. As was to be expected, business groups cheered the order, hoping that it would reduce the "burden of federal regulations," and "[c]onsumer, labor and environmental groups denounced the executive order, saying it gave too much control to the White House and would hinder agencies' efforts to protect the public." Professor Peter L. Strauss of Columbia Law School believes the executive order "'achieves a major increase in White House control over domestic government.'"
5 comments:
Love the name "Agency Good Guidance Practices". Right up there with Clean Air Initiative and Healthy Forests.
There is an interesting YouTube rebroadcast of a colloquy between MSNBC's John Olbermann and former Nixon Whitehouse Counsel John Dean on the matter at http://olbermannnation.com/index.php/2007/01/30/executive_order_13422
(sorry about the lengthy URL!). They point out that this Executive Order actually amends an earlier Executive Order by Clinton (which amends the original Executive Order on this topic by Reagan). The headline at Olbermann's site is Bush v. Congress, and they analyze it as one more attack by this administration on Congressional power, stepping between the Congressional grant of authority to the federal agencies, and subverting it by subjecting it to the control of a political appointee.
You can reach the cite I mention above which has a broken URL in the comment, by either going to the URL as it shows, and lopping off "ex" from the end, or you can add the end of the URL:
/01/30/executive_order_13422/
Or, using the ever-handy TinyUrl.com, here: http://tinyurl.com/26c4rt
Thank you, Jim! I forget about TinyUrl. Duh!
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