Community | January 20, 2009 | 31 comments

Obama halts all Bush regulations pending review

source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28758810/

Image
AwesomeJosh
One of President Barack Obama's first acts Tuesday was to put the brakes on all pending regulations that the Bush administration tried to push through in its waning days.

The order went out shortly after Obama was inaugurated president, in a memorandum signed by new White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

Former President George W. Bush's administration moved into overdrive in the last year or so on a host of new regulatory proposals. Now the Obama administration will review everything that is still pending.

In doing so, the Obama administration is taking a page out of Bush's playbook from 2001.

Within hours after Bush was sworn in, Bush advisers were seeking to reverse some late-term actions of President Bill Clinton, who in his final 20 days in office issued 12 executive orders, including directives on migratory birds and the importation of diamonds from Sierra Leone.

Eight years later, the Obama White House is making a similar move. In some cases, however, the Bush administration moved too fast for the incoming administration.

For example, just six weeks ago, the Bush administration issued revised endangered species regulations to reduce the input of federal scientists and to block the law from being used to fight global warming.

The Bush administration worked diligently to get the change in place before Obama took over, corralling 15 experts in Washington in October to sort through 250,000 written comments from the public on the revisions in 32 hours.

Obama has said he would work to reverse the changes. But because the rule takes effect before he is sworn in, he would have to restart the lengthy rulemaking process.

The changes would eliminate some of the mandatory, independent reviews that government scientists have performed for 35 years on dams, power plants, timber sales and other projects, a requirement that developers and other federal agencies have blamed for delays and cost increases.

The rules also prohibit federal agencies from evaluating the effect on endangered species and the places they live from a project's contribution to increased global warming.

Another Bush administration regulation that went in effect this month overturned a 25-year-old federal rule that severely restricts loaded guns in national parks...
  1. groups:
    Community,   Current News US,   Picked for Current Tonight
  2. tags:
    News,  Current TV,  Obama,  America,  5 more
  3.     
    |

31 comments // Obama halts all Bush regulations pending review

  • SupeRblah90
    • 0
      SupeRblah90  

    • It's great that he's taking action right away and trying to erase as much as possible that bush left as a burden but still it's his first day we shouldn't praise him just yet.

    • 3 years ago
  • stopnoise
    • 0
      stopnoise  

    • This administration needs to do more than that. In addition to that it needs to stop the lobbying yo-yo game in the Government. It needs to establish all the Universal values and Laws of common good and decide in favor of the Universal ones. Those that cannot be lobbied or changed only to favor a political or economic party over the destruction of people's health and their environment.

    • 3 years ago
  • khromadjo
  • galwayman
    • 0
      galwayman  

    • Obama must move to revoke the Patriot Act and the other repressive laws Bush enacted which are unconstitutional as well as to dismantle Bush's police state! Obama must also appoint a special proscutor to go after Bush for war crimes that he and Cheney have admitted to on TV! Next he must reverse the draconian cuts to social service programs inacted by Bush and his administration! lastly Obama must bring all our troops home and use the money saved to provide food,shelter,and medical care for every American! After 8 years of what amounts to facist rule its time for social justice in this country!

    • 3 years ago
  • diabolical44
  • Tiker
    • 0
      Tiker  

    • Hmm thats a nice picture! he has the hand motion and everything looks like he's a winner...but seriously change is good but cmon honesly 1 day and ppl are like 8 more years! 8 more years! lol lets just let him do his job b4 we criticize him or hail him as king...just a thought

    • 3 years ago
  • ZombiePhil23
  • rebelution07
  • Lazybones
  • Neghie
    • 0
      Neghie  

    • Funny how a man who was such a doofus, got two fricking terms. I think it says more about us than it says about him. I for one don't expect anything more or less than competence from Obama.

    • 3 years ago
  • bluestranger
    • 0
      bluestranger  
    • Neghie:

      I agree that it says more about us. We need to look inside our selves and take stock. It make syou wonder if 9/11 had a deeper impact on us, in ways that we have not thought of.

    • 3 years ago
  • SamuraiDave
  • crob80227
    • 0
      crob80227  

    • @commonsense2

      What about trichloroethylene, an industrial degreaser and a suspected carcinogen? Bush thought it was "safe" and though companies should be free to dump as many metric tons of this chemical in your drinking water as they wanted. Hope you like tumors and infertility!

      What about a little-known waste product of plastics manufacturing called styrene acrylonitrile trimer?

      When your kids start puking up blood and the local scientists point to styrene acrylonitrile trimer in the water as a suspect....don't go to Bush (not that you could anymore anyway)! His crew thought this cancer-causing toxin was perfectly fine to drink. A disease rate of 1 per 1,000 is perfectly acceptable to those guys.

      Personally I feel a little better knowing an intelligent adult like President Obama is reviewing Bush's work and making sure we're getting a fair deal.

    • 3 years ago
  • commonsense2
  • anikhanj
  • rebelution07
  • ALLNATURALVEGANS
  • amlilui
    • 0
      amlilui  
    • commonsense2:

      It is arrogant to think that we aren't affecting global warming at all. Perhaps in the past our footprint was negligible, but population and technology have exploded and we are certainly making waves now.

      It is a political point of contention, a moot point. We need to be more responsible as a species, that is the only sensible route to a prosperous future.

      It would appear Obama has the same idea.

      Yay. ^-^ !

    • 3 years ago
  • k8_hj
  • VitaminStolz
    • 0
      VitaminStolz  

    • Bush and his damn Administration, has been the one of the worst things to happen to this country. Right up there with Katrina, 9/11, and the Economy crash.

    • 3 years ago
  • crob80227
    • 0
      crob80227  

    • Considering what a disorganized clusterfuck the Bush Presidency was...I am very, very optimistic of Obama's ability to get this shit corrected, overturned and put in place quickly. I have no doubt Obama has a spreadsheet on his Blackberry outlining ALL the fuckupery of the Bushies and is hard at work diligently and systematically correcting everything they've screwed up.

      Whereas Bush's "executive experience" seems to be reading children's books....Obama seems to have read and memorized David Allen's "Getting Things Done."

      The Conservatives don't stand a chance.

      Thank God!

      That means this country just might survive the 21th century.

    • 3 years ago
  • EricT
  • amlilui
  • DouginLA
  • LarzNero
  • CalgarC
  • Kepano
    • 0
      Kepano  

    • Let's hope he can fix some of the Damage caused by Bush and Company. I can't wait for charges if any are brought up by the ICC. Let's all hope for that too.

    • 3 years ago
  • sk8r408
    • 0
      sk8r408  

    • "Another Bush administration regulation that went in effect this month overturned a 25-year-old federal rule that severely restricts loaded guns in national parks..."

      I wonder how park rangers feel about that.

    • 3 years ago
  • js9999
    • 0
      js9999  
    • sk8r408:

      The parks are underfunded and the rangers are outgunned by drug dealers/illegal park marijuana farming. They have a hard time defending themselves. In an isolated place like a national forest the people should be able to defend themselves since no one will be there for them. Maybe the rangers would be in favor.

    • 3 years ago
  • crob80227
    • 0
      crob80227  
    • sk8r408:

      Over 2.5 million people are shot each year in National parks! 300,000 deaths occur every month inside a national park.

      Oh wait...that's not true. Literally NO ONE is ever shot at or is in any danger of being shot at in national parks (outside of actual Park Ranger patrolling deep in the interior of the park).

    • 3 years ago
more from Community:
from the community

top videos