White House begins process of relaxing government regulations for industry
December 19, 2002: The Bush administration released a report on how it plans to overhaul more than 300 federal regulations targeted by industry. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will direct the review that could significantly weaken rules safeguarding America's environment and public health.
Under the Bush administration, the OMB has enjoyed unprecedented new power to undermine existing environmental rules and bottle up new ones indefinitely. Last year the agency reached out to polluters and the think tanks they fund to develop a specific "hit list" of dozens of environmental and public health safeguards, many of which were weakened. Corporations again dominated the nominating process this year, placing many of their suggestions for changing regulations on OMB's "hit list" for 2003. The federal agency with the largest number of rules targeted for review (65) is the Environmental Protection Agency.
"While the Bush administration claims the aim of its hit list is to reform regulations, its objective in rewriting rules for corporations is really to roll back important safeguards for public health and the environment," said Wesley Warren, NRDC's regulatory expert. "Corporations can expect the White House to fulfill their Christmas wish list, and everyone else will get a lump of coal."
© 2010 Natural Resources Defense Council
