Midnight (De-)Regulation and the Myth of A 'Center Right Nation' -- Part 2: Hiding The Ball

by: Paul Rosenberg

Sun Nov 16, 2008 at 14:06

• Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (Department of Transportation) - The rule would allow truck drivers to drive up to 11 consecutive hours. Because of the effects of fatigue, longer hours-of-service periods put both truck drivers and other motorists at risk.

• Department of Justice - The rule would expand the power of state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate potential criminal activities and report the information to federal agencies. The rule would broaden the scope of activities authorities could monitor to include organizations as well as individuals, along with non-criminal activities that are deemed "suspicious."

• Employment Standards Administration (Labor) - The rule would limit employee access to family and medical leave. Among other things, the rule would make it more difficult for workers to use paid vacation or personal time to take leave and would allow employers to speak directly to an employee's health care provider.

• Department of Health and Human Services - The rule could reduce women's access to federally funded reproductive health services. The rule would require health care providers to certify they will allow their employees to withhold services on the basis of religious or moral grounds or risk losing funding.

In May, White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten issued a memo that set deadlines for agency regulations during the remaining months of the Bush administration. Bolten said he wanted to stop last-minute regulatory activity - commonly known as midnight regulations. To avoid this, except in "extraordinary circumstances," Bolten said agencies should propose regulations that they want to finalize no later than June 1 and that all final rules should be published by Nov. 1.

This is a joke, right?

Right:

Now that the June 1 deadline has come and gone, it appears there are a lot of "extraordinary circumstances" to be found. Recently, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed a rule that could have far-reaching impacts on women and family planning decisions. The rule allows health care professionals at institutions that receive government money to opt out of providing abortion and sterilization if such services create a problem of conscience for the provider. HHS would require the institutions to certify they are complying with federal laws that allow health care workers to withhold services on the basis of religious or moral grounds. Violations could lead to loss of funding.

After first leaking a proposed rule that would have defined many contraceptives as abortion, HHS published a rule that leaves ambiguous the scope of services that might be curtailed.

The proposed rule was published on Aug. 26, long after the Bolten June 1 deadline, and the Bush administration is gaming the system to get the rule finalized. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reviewed the rule before it was released, as it does with all major rules. But OMB reviewed the HHS rule with unusual stealth: the review was done in hours, the same day HHS published the rule, ensuring that it would not appear on OMB's website until after the fact. Additionally, the comment period on the proposal is only 30 days, which is short for major rules in general, but very short for highly complex and controversial rules such as this one.

This is hardly surprising to those of us who've been paying attention to how the Bush Administration operates these past 8 years.  Too bad that excludes virtually everyone in the punditalkrazy.  But it is a sort of timely reminder that they will never stop pulling this shit up to the very last minute they are able to-and even beyond, if they can block any efforts to undo the evil they've done.

Bass goes on to cite two more examples of regulations in the Department of Labor (DOL).  About the second one, he writes:

Another DOL proposed rule, this one from MSHA, violates the Bolten memo and appears to be heading swiftly toward finalization. On Sept. 8, MSHA proposed to require mandatory substance abuse testing for miners. The requirement would apply to miners who perform "safety-sensitive job duties" and their supervisors. (MSHA defines safety-sensitive job duties as, "Any type of work activity where a momentary lapse of critical concentration could result in an accident, injury, or death.") Mine operators could test for drug and alcohol use both as a condition of employment and at any time during employment.

Why would MSHA focus on drug testing when recent mine disasters have shown that miners face unconscionably hazardous working conditions including lack of adequate communications systems and rescue equipment? As Ken Ward reports in the Charleston Gazette, "Coal industry officials have long sought an MSHA rule to require drug testing of miners." Like with the other rules, MSHA will only take public comment for 30 days, indicating Bush officials - like former coal industry executive and current MSHA chief Richard Stickler - are trying to bestow a generous parting gift to the coal industry before a new administration takes over.

This is the same Adminstration, mind you, that has studious ignored massive serial mine safety violations on the part of mine-owners., and okayed highly dangerous operations.  Their head of mine safety was an old industry hand, who was so distrusted that even when the GOP controlled Congress, he had to be appointed during a Congressional recess, because he couldn't pass public scrutiny in this center-right nation.  Back in August, 2007, AP reported in fair and balanced fashion ("Utah Mine Collapse Puts Safety Chief Under Fire"):

As hopes for a rescue dim at Utah's collapsed Crandall Canyon Mine, critics looking for someone to blame are focusing on the stern-faced director of the government agency that oversees coal mine safety.

Members of Congress, union officials and worker advocates were skeptical before the Aug. 6 accident that Richard Stickler was dedicated enough to worker safety.

The former mine executive faced so much opposition when he was appointed to head the Mine Safety and Health Administration, President Bush had to bypass critics and install him during a congressional recess last October.

Now all three groups are pointing to mistakes they say Stickler has made in handling attempts to rescue six trapped miners. The situation grew more grim last week when three rescue workers were killed in a subsequent cave-in.

Stickler's career at the agency will be defined by the Crandall Canyon accident and his next big decision - whether to call off the rescue effort and entomb the six missing miners forever.

Critics think any investigation of the accident will ultimately ask why the agency signed off in June on a mining plan for the area where the collapse occurred.

Experts have said the terrain is risky for the type of mining the operators wanted to do. Concerns about the roof's stability after a cave-in damaged another part of the mine in March made the agency's approval even more questionable, they say.

Stickler probably never saw the Crandall Canyon mining plan, critics say.

A mine workers union and others say Stickler has failed to change the climate at the agency from one of "really coddling mine operators," said Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America, which opposed Stickler's appointment and is calling for an independent investigation of the accident.

"What we're not seeing is a change in culture," Smith said. "I think the Crandall Canyon incident reflects that."

As for the mine owner, did he take any sort of responsibility?

Not exactly:

At the mine on Wednesday, co-owner Robert Murray said he would forever seal the mine and not touch any part of it for mining.

Murray, chief executive of the Murray Energy Corp., made the comments after outrage swept this mourning community when he suggested on Tuesday that he might rename the mine, Crandall Canyon, and resume operations in another area.

Murray said Wednesday that those initial words had been misinterpreted. Instead, he said, he may mine coal reserves in different mountains several miles from the Crandall Canyon site, at an unspecified date.

"I have no plans to ever reopen the mine," said Murray, in a telephone interview. "I never had any intention of going back in physically. It's done. It's closed."

"Crandall Canyon is finished in name, and all possible entryways into Crandall Canyon are done, too," he said. "It's alive, and it's an evil mountain."

That's right: It's not his fault!  The evil mountain did it!

And they want to test miners for doing drugs!  That's how they'll keep them safe.

Another example Bass cites amounts to a de facto gutting of the Endangered Species Act:

In another "extraordinary circumstance," on Aug. 15, the Department of Interior proposed a change in the way government agencies comply with the Endangered Species Act. The proposal would allow officials to approve development projects that could impact endangered species without consulting federal wildlife and habitat scientists.

Interior's proposal missed the Bolten memo's deadline by two-and-a-half months. OMB spent only three days reviewing the proposed rule, whereas the average review time this year for Interior rules is 64 days. Like all the others, the comment period will only be 30 days.

Out in the real world of this so-called "center-right nation," an awful lot of environmentalists at the local level are Republicans.  Thanks to this new regulation, they won't be sticking their noses into government business as their local wildlands are bulldozed over.  There are just too many conservative socialists running around out there.  Can't let them take over everything!

Ah, and then there's the never-ending expansion of spying on everyone:

The hits just keep on coming. On July 31, the Department of Justice proposed a rule - again, after the June 1 deadline - that may result in additional domestic spying by allowing state and local law enforcement agencies to gather and include terrorism-related information in their federally funded criminal intelligence data systems, and to share such information with federal officials. The data would be held in the information systems for ten years instead of the current five years. Civil liberties experts noted that the rule, the first revision of police intelligence gathering since 1993, would result in local and state law enforcement conducting intelligence gathering for the federal government. In short, the proposal makes it easier for state and local police to spy on Americans. Like the others, this proposed rule only allows one month to comment.

I just can't understand why they have to be so secretive about all this?  Haven't they heard?  America is a center-right nation.  We're all cool with anything they want to do.  That's why we gave the Republicans such a resounding victory at the polls two weeks ago.  Where have they been?