Fighting for the Right to the Rules

[Guest guest]

I don't think this is good at all.

Fighting for the Right to the Rules

By Skrzycki, The Washington Post

Tuesday, July 17, 2007; Page D02

The Bush administration and the Democratic-controlled

Congress are fighting over who will have the most influence

over writing rules on health and safety issues. While the

dispute is not as dramatic as the ones over fired

prosecutors and wartime surveillance, the stakes are high.

Generally, Congress delegates power to executive

departments to write regulations, with presidents issuing

executive orders giving bureaucrats more specific

directions on how to proceed. In January, President Bush

issued an order effectively rewriting the playbook to give

the White House more authority.

Democrats responded with a House vote last month to kill

funding for the changes.

Because the wording of environmental or safety rules can

cost industry millions of dollars, 64 trade groups

successfully lobbied a Senate committee to drop a similar

provision last week. The administration threatened to veto

any bill that blocks financing.

....

(D-N.C.) and other critics said they feared the

White House would pick regulatory policy officers who would

disregard scientific data used to support rules.

....

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/

07/16/AR2007071601500.html>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/0

7/16/AR2007071601500.html

or

<http://tinyurl.com/2bl27f> http://tinyurl.com/2bl27f