Obama stops pending Bush regs, including EOBRs

President Obama's "midnight regulations" move has been used by former presidents, including Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush.

The Trucker Staff

1/22/2009

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama Jan. 20 put the brakes on all pending federal regulations until they can be reviewed by incoming staff, halting any last-minute Bush initiatives.

There are several rules specific to trucking that could be affected by the order including electronic on-board recorders (EOBRs), the intermodal chassis rule, driver medical certification, and a rule regarding new entrant safety.

Former Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator John Hill told The Trucker he had hoped to move the EOBR rule through before leaving his position, but it didn’t move out of the Office of Management and Budget in time and is still awaiting that office’s approval.

The trucker Hours of Service Final Rule became effective Jan. 19, the day before Obama took office, and would not be affected by the presidential hold.

Specifically the memo from the White House ordered the withdrawal from the Office of the Federal Register “all proposed or final regulations that have not been published in the Federal Register so that they can be reviewed and approved by a department or agency head,” and “… consider extending for 60 days the effective date of regulations that have been published in the Federal Register but not yet taken effect ….”

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.

For rules that have already gone into effect, the Democratic-controlled Congress might be able to help the Obama administration by using the Congressional Review Act, a legislative tool to bring new federal regulations under scrutiny.

Associated Press sources contributed to this report.

Barb Kampbell of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at barbkampbell@thetrucker.com.