Report
Says Bush Administration Rewrote the Rules
on Protecting
the Environment, Public Health
Administration
Showed Hostility, Second Guessed Agency Regulations
October
24, 2002
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, in reviewing
previously approved environmental regulations shortly after it
came to power in 2001, exhibited “a pre-determined
hostility” toward the regulations, according to a Majority
Staff report issued Wednesday by Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, D-Conn.
By discounting regulatory procedure and the value of
public participation, the report said, the administration set an
antagonistic tone for its approach to environmental and health
regulations.
“It was wrong for the
administration to second guess these final rules,” Lieberman
said. “It was
wrong to discount a well-established scientific record.
And it was wrong for the administration to use stealth
tactics to achieve its ideologically-driven ends.”
On Inauguration Day 2001, White
House Chief of Staff Andrew Card ordered a freeze of the
regulatory process, halting agency rules that in some cases had
traversed a years-long - in one case decades-long - review
process and were waiting only for implementation dates.
Without giving the public an opportunity to comment, the
administration held in abeyance a number of regulations until
they could be reviewed by political appointees, the report said.
The circumstances surrounding the
review of three rules in particular which did not survive
inspection were examined by Governmental Affairs Committee
majority staff. Those
rules were the Department of Agriculture’s rule prohibiting
most road construction and logging in roadless areas of national
forests, the Department of the Interior’s rule regulating hard
rock mining on public lands, and the Environmental Protection
Agency’s rule capping the permissible level of arsenic in
drinking water.
Each rule was “subjected to the
new administration’s second guessing,” the report said.
In the first two cases, the administration ultimately
weakened or undermined the rules. In the third, the rule
initially adopted after years of scientific study was
challenged, but ultimately was retained after months of
additional - and unnecessary - study.
The
report tells a story of administration actions characterized by
a dismissive attitude toward long-established regulatory
procedures, the value of public input, and the
science or record supporting the rules under review.
Specific findings include:
-
The Bush administration’s decision to revisit the three
rules at issue appears to have been based on a “pre-determined
hostility to the regulations rather than a documented close
analysis of the rules or the agencies’ basis for issuing
them.”
-
The administration chose not to defend, against a court
challenge, the Agriculture Department’s rule protecting
roadless areas in national forests , thereby shirking public
responsibility for undermining the rule. Documents show an
intent to “let (the) Judge take (the) rule down.”
-
The White House was clearly involved in discussions
regarding changes in the standard for arsenic in water.
Documents refer to discussions “at very senior
levels,” and also show that the Office of Management and
Budget pressed the Environmental Protection Agency to weaken the
standard.
-
The Bush administration’s decision to propose
suspension of the hard rock mining rule “was not based on
documented substantive analysis,” and the ultimate decision to
rescind parts of the rule allows mining to continue to pose
unwarranted environmental and health risks.
The administration’s future
intentions for each of these rules is unclear but the report
makes clear that “any further actions... must be in full
compliance with the spirit and the letter of the law and must
not further erode environmental protections or rule-making
procedures.”
In response to the administration's
attempt to undermine the rules preserving roadless areas in
national forests, Senator Lieberman will co-sponsor a bill by
Senator Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., to prohibit road construction
in certain areas. Protecting
these areas is critical to preserving important watersheds,
vegetation, and wildlife. REPORT:
Rewriting
the Rules
Report prepared by the Majority Staff
of the
Committee on Governmental Affairs
United States Senate
October 24, 2002
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