Seven U.S. House Republicans, Speaker John Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell are doing some creative worrying. They fear that President Obama, while waiting for President-elect Romney to be sworn in would run through a flurry of “midnight regulations” that would be at odds with the new administrations philosophy. To guard against this they have crafted The Midnight Rule Relief Act, H.R. 4607.
H.R. 4607 is designed to prevent "significant" regulations from being promulgated from the day after the November election through Jan. 20, Obama's last day in office should he lose.
Republican supporters of the bill said an outgoing president should not have the authority to issue these rules, which the bill defines as those having an impact on the economy of $100 million or more.
Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader Sen. McConnell have asked President Obama not to initiate any such regulations should he lose the election. They say this would be inconsistent with his 2009 pledge to transparency and accountability in the rule making process.
What did George W. do at midnight?
It is unclear whether Boehner, McConnell and the seven worried Republican Congressmen may or may not recall that before he left office in January 2009 George W. Bush passed a remarkable number of “midnight regulations”. Bush reportedly passed more “midnight regulations” than either Bill Clinton or his father George H.W. Bush.
(December 2008) Dozens of new rules have already been introduced which critics say will diminish worker safety, pollute the environment, promote gun use and curtail abortion rights. Many rules promote the interests of large industries, such as coal mining or energy, which have energetically supported Bush during his two terms as president. More are expected this week.
Some of the last minute Bush regulations included business friendly changes that eased mountain top removal mining rules, coal industry air pollution equipment upgrading, endangered species protection and much more.
So Boehner and company may not actually worry that President Obama won’t honor his own pledge but instead fear he might act as their man George W. Bush did when he left office.
Todays’ Republican message: “Do as we now say not as we once did.”
They made my nails curl.
I don’t think this country could survive another Republican presidency, especially since the war on women and science has become institutionalized in the party. But sometimes it seems as though the more incongruous a Republican win is, the more possible it is for us to be unpleasantly surprised.
Who’d have thought Nixon, Reagan and G.W. Bush could ever become president?
an outgoing president should not have the authority to issue these rules
Do we only elect them to serve from January Year 1 to November Year 4? Odd that the Constitution seems to think presidents serve precisely 4 years, and not a day or month less.