Bush Recess Appointment Threatens Public Protections

PRESS RELEASE
-For Immediate Release-
April 4, 2007

Contact: Brian Gumm, (202) 234-8494, bgumm@ombwatch.org

Bush Recess Appointment Threatens Public Protections

WASHINGTON, April 4, 2007—President George W. Bush today installed Susan Dudley as White House regulatory czar through a recess appointment. Dudley will now serve in the White House Office of Management and Budget as administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA).

OIRA is a powerful office responsible for reviewing and approving federal agencies' most significant regulations. Installing Dudley threatens decades of public health and safety protections; doing so by recess appointment endangers our democratic process.

"Dudley's record is one of anti-regulatory extremism," said Rick Melberth, Director of Regulatory Policy at OMB Watch. "She has opposed some of our nation's most basic environmental, workplace safety and public health protections."

Dudley has falsely proclaimed ground-level ozone to be beneficial, opposed ergonomic standards to protect workers from repetitive stress disorders, and even suggested that airbags should never have been mandated in automobiles.

The kinds of rollbacks Dudley may push forward could render useless valuable federal laws that have saved countless American lives. OMB Watch and Public Citizen documented Dudley's anti-regulatory views in a September 2006 report, The Cost Is Too High: How Susan Dudley Threatens Public Protections.

Dudley's strong ties with the industries she will be regulating pose an obvious conflict of interest. For the three years before her nomination, Dudley directed the Regulatory Studies program at the Mercatus Center — an industry-funded, anti-regulatory think tank. It is likely that industry executives will have unprecedented access to Dudley, while concerned citizens will be increasingly shut out.

As Dudley begins her work, OMB Watch strongly urges Congress to exercise its considerable oversight powers to prevent attempts to dismantle public protections.

By installing Dudley through recess appointment, Bush has also circumvented the constitutional confirmation process. The Republican-controlled Senate of the 109th Congress did not move her nomination in 2006. The new Senate began planning for the confirmation process after Dudley was renominated earlier this year.

"At a time when the American people are growing more frustrated with back-room, special interest dealings at the White House, Bush has bypassed the transparency afforded by the Senate confirmation process," Melberth said.

The Cost Is Too High: How Susan Dudley Threatens Public Protections is available at /files/regs/dudley/report.

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