[Net-Gold] Obama Positioned To Quickly Reverse Bush Actions

[David P. Dillard]

Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:04:39 -0500 (EST)
From: George Lessard <me...@web.net>
Reply-To: Net-...@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Net-Gold] Obama Positioned To Quickly Reverse Bush Actions

Obama Positioned To Quickly Reverse Bush Actions
Stem Cell, Climate Rules Among Targets of President-Elect's Team
By Ceci Connolly and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post
November 9, 2008

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2008/11/08/AR2008110801856.html>

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have
compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions
and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to
reverse White House policies on climate change, stem
cell research, reproductive rights and other issues,
according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and
experts working with the transition team.

A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in
virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and
policy changes Obama could implement soon after his
inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal
advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential
agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the
most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top
transition official who was not permitted to speak on
the record about the inner workings of the transition.

In some instances, Obama would be quickly delivering on
promises he made during his two-year campaign, while in
others he would be embracing Clinton-era policies
upended by President Bush during his eight years in
office.

"The kind of regulations they are looking at" are those
imposed by Bush for "overtly political" reasons, in
pursuit of what Democrats say was a partisan Republican
agenda, said Dan Mendelson, a former associate
administrator for health in the Clinton administration's
Office of Management and Budget. The list of executive
orders targeted by Obama's team could well get longer in
the coming days, as Bush's appointees rush to enact a
number of last-minute policies in an effort to extend
his legacy.

A spokeswoman said yesterday that no plans for
regulatory changes had been finalized. "Before he makes
any decisions on potential executive or legislative
actions, he will be conferring with congressional
leaders on both sides of the aisle, as well as
interested groups," Obama transition spokeswoman
Stephanie Cutter said. "Any decisions would need to be
discussed with his Cabinet nominees, none of whom have
been selected yet."

Still, the preelection transition team, comprising
mainly lawyers, has positioned the incoming president to
move fast on high-priority items without waiting for
Congress.

[...]

Obama himself has signaled, for example, that he intends
to reverse Bush's controversial limit on federal funding
of embryonic stem cell research, a decision that
scientists say has restrained research into some of the
most promising avenues for defeating a wide array of
diseases, such as Parkinson's

[...]

The new president is also expected to lift a so-called
global gag rule barring international family planning
groups that receive U.S. aid from counseling women about
the availability of abortion, even in countries where
the procedure is legal, said Cecile Richards, the
president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
When Bill Clinton took office in 1993, he rescinded the
Reagan-era regulation, known as the Mexico City policy,
but Bush reimposed it.

[...]

The president-elect has said, for example, that he
intends to quickly reverse the Bush administration's
decision last December to deny California the authority
to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles.
"Effectively tackling global warming demands bold and
innovative solutions, and given the failure of this
administration to act, California should be allowed to
pioneer," Obama said in January.

[...]

Other early Obama initiatives may address the need for
improved food and drug regulation and chart a new course
for immigration enforcement, some Obama advisers say.
But they add that only a portion of his early efforts
will be aimed at undoing Bush initiatives.

[...]