White House Endorses Parts of Anti-Regulatory Hit List

The White House released the final version of its 2004-05 anti-regulatory hit list, with a report detailing 76 out of 189 items from the industry-nominated list that received the endorsement of the White House and agencies. The report, released March 9, is the culmination of a process that began last spring when the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs invited suggestions from the public for a hit list of regulations to be weakened or eliminated in order to benefit the manufacturing sector. OIRA followed up in December 2004 by summarizing the suggestions from the public, appending its own suggestions for anti-regulatory changes, and instructed the agencies to submit their reactions to OIRA. The new report lists suggestions from the public that are endorsed by the agencies and OIRA as the administration�s regulatory �reform� priorities. It reiterates each of the endorsed hit list items with a brief summary of the protections targeted for weakening and a series of deadlines for agency follow-up actions. The White House declined, however, to release any similar follow-up for the two other lists in the December report: the White House�s own hit list, and the White House�s fast-track list of items in early stages of the rulemaking process which OIRA pushed the agencies to propel to the top of their agendas. The vast majority of the items endorsed for the final hit list would weaken environmental protections. These hit-listed protections include weakening standards for safely disposing of PCBs and reducing the amount of information that companies are required to report under the Toxics Release Inventory, a database that enables communities to know what toxic substances have been released in their own backyards. Workers� rights under the Family and Medical Leave Act were also attacked from multiple fronts. Other protections on the final hit list include weakening of safeguards against Listeria in ready-to-eat meat products and a rule change to increase the maximum number of hours that truck drivers can be forced to work without rest and without overtime pay. In order to secure some positive spin for an otherwise completely anti-regulatory hit list, the White House included two items suggested by Public Citizen. One, regarding protections against passengers being ejected from vehicles in accidents, is already underway in part at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The other, addressing vehicle compatibility problems (or the problem posed by aggressively designed SUVs when they collide with smaller passenger cars with different bumper heights, etc.), was not even given a deadline for real action � only a promise from NHTSA to report to the White House on the status of research in the area.
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