Just in the nick of time, we have discovered that all is not lost where it comes to the current White House occupant's frantic attempts to totally wreck our country! No, indeed, as a little-known Clinton-era law offers Obama and the white hats a way to reverse Bush administration midnight regulations — even ones that have already taken effect.

Of course White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten had instructed federal agency heads to make sure any new regulations were finalized by Nov. 1 so that they would not make the same mistakes the Clinton administration did. (Because Bill had finalized regulations on good bills, especially many concerned with environmental protection, within 60 days of the end of his term, it allowed W to cancel them wholesale on the very day he was inaugurated!)

It could take Obama years to undo climate rules finalized more than 60 days before he takes office — the advantage the White House sought by getting them done by Nov. 1. Ah, but their strategy didn't t account for the Congressional Review Act of 1996.

A clause in this law says that any regulation finalized within 60 legislative days of congressional adjournment is considered to have been legally finalized on the 15th legislative day of the new Congress, likely sometime in February. And Congress then has 60 days to review it and reverse it with a joint resolution that can’t be filibustered in the Senate.

In other words, any regulation finalized in the last half-year of the Bush administration could be wiped out with a simple party-line vote in the Democrat-controlled Congress.

Read it all:  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15530.html

Positively,
Carolan