Bush's new executive order: More deaths? More cover-ups?

Rep. Henry Waxman held important hearings today on the Bush administration's interference with government research on global warming, but there hasn't been enough attention in the coverage of the Waxman hearings about a related development: President Bush's new executive order designed to place regulatory agencies under even stronger Bush administration pro-business control.

If you read today's New York Times on the seemingly arcane issue of asserting more political oversight over regulatory agencies, it appears that Bush is looking for other ways to undermine the intent of laws, such as the Clean Air Act, designed to protect the public. Under the new executive order, an office designed to provide political clearance to all regulations and policy statements will be established in major agencies, setting the stage for more political interference and global warming-style cover-ups. The agencies most under attack by this new order are the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, both already compromised, but the latter is notorious for its lax enforcement that has led to countless worker deaths.

In that context, it's important to understand the broader threat that Bush's new executive order represents. It's an effort to work around current laws and Congressional authority -- sharing the same spirit of arrogance as his approach to the Iraq war. Doesn't this sound all-too-familiar?

President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.

In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president's priorities.

This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats.

The White House said the executive order was not meant to rein in any one agency. But business executives and consumer advocates said the administration was particularly concerned about rules and guidance issued by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Expert observers and Rep. Waxman agree on the dangerous new assertion of executive authority this represents:

Peter L. Strauss, a professor at Columbia Law School, said the executive order "achieves a major increase in White House control over domestic government."

"Having lost control of Congress," Mr. Strauss said, "the president is doing what he can to increase his control of the executive branch."

Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California and chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said: "The executive order allows the political staff at the White House to dictate decisions on health and safety issues, even if the government's own impartial experts disagree. This is a terrible way to govern, but great news for special interests."

Now that the Democrats are in the majority in Congress, and Rep. Waxman chairs an important oversight committee, this new expansion of presidential authority will, we can hope, get the scrutiny it deserves. All that's at stake are the lives, safety and health of citizens and workers.