Clinton leaves with new rules galore
Business groups accuse him
of stifling commerce
December 24 — President Bill Clinton is using
his last month in office to make some
sweeping changes, NBC's John Palmer reports.


MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
WASHINGTON, Dec. 25 — Departing with a flurry of
activity, the Clinton administration is rushing out a
stream of regulations — integrating public
housing, roping off millions of acres of federal
land from developers, requiring less polluting
trucks and protecting miners with black lung
disease, among many other actions.

‘What Clinton is
trying to do is put
the next
administration into
a regulatory
straitjacket.’
— BILL KOVACS
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON is determined to
fashion a legacy of major initiatives in areas of public health,
the environment and worker rights, administration officials
say.
Business groups already are preparing for a
counterattack. They hope that Congress, the courts and the
incoming, more business-friendly Bush administration will
soften some of the still-unfinished rules and possibly roll
back others.
“What Clinton is trying to do is put the next
administration into a regulatory straitjacket,” said Bill
Kovacs, vice president for environment and regulatory
affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Once these
regulations are in effect, it’s very difficult to change them.”
The regulatory rush before a change of administrations
“is not all that unusual,” especially for Democrats, who are
traditionally more active in crafting a social agenda, said
Pietro Nivola, an expert in regulatory politics at the
Brookings Institution.
He noted there was a flurry of such activity at the close
of the Carter administration 20 years ago, although
Republican administrations have generally been active as
they leave office.
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A spokesman for Republican President-elect George
W. Bush declined to comment on any of the rule changes.
But he said the incoming administration would “closely
review” the rules and could take action once Bush takes
office Jan. 20.

WHITE HOUSE: NO BIG DEAL
The White House played down the significance of the
late regulations, saying every president wants to close
unfinished business as his administration winds down. Many
rules were in the works for months, even years in some
cases, they said.
“There’s been ample time for the public to weigh in, for
interest groups to weigh in,” White House press secretary
Jake Siewert said.
The flow of major rules, regulations, standards and
executive orders — a “midnight binge” of rulemaking,
according to some Republican lawmakers — have been
eye-catching. Among the areas affected:
Diesel fuel and truck pollution.
Privacy of health records.
Labeling standards for organically grown foods.
Coal miners’ ability to get benefits for black lung disease.
Pollution from cattle and pig feedlots.
Mercury pollution from power plants.
Protection of Hawaiian coral reefs.
Protections for employees against repetitive-stress
injuries.
Tighter environmental rules for the hard-rock mining
industry.
The president is not finished, administration officials
acknowledge.
Expected early in 2001 is a ban on new roads on
nearly 60 million acres of federal forests. The Environmental
Protection Agency is preparing regulations to protect
wetlands and tighten arsenic levels in water and lead levels
in soil.

New rules crack down on dirty diesel


CONGRESS CRIES FOUL
Like last week’s diesel fuel requirements, the expected
restrictions on large, pristine areas of federal forests is
meeting sharp resistance in Congress.
With energy prices high, Republican lawmakers have
characterized the diesel rule and forest road ban as threats
to energy supplies. Environmentalists scoff at such claims as
untrue.
Although time is running out, Clinton is not done using
his executive authority to protect more public land under the
1906 Antiquities Act. He used that power in 1996 to set
aside 1.7 million acres of the Grand Staircase-Escalante
National Monument in Utah, as well as a half-dozen smaller
areas since then.
‘There’s been
ample time for the
public to weigh in,
for interest groups
to weigh in.’
— JAKE SIEWERT
White House press secretary
Among the federal lands expected to gain monument
status — and special protection with it — is a 150-mile
stretch of grasslands along the upper Missouri River known
as the Missouri Breaks.
Clinton also has come under pressure from
environmentalists to ensure permanent protection of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska from oil
development.
Interest in declaring the refuge’s oil-rich coastal plan a
federal monument took on added weight after Bush made
drilling for oil in the reserve a key part of his proposed
energy plan.
The arctic reserve is now protected against oil drilling,
but lawmakers could enact legislation allowing development.
While Clinton “was looking at the issue,” it is not under
active consideration, Siewert said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
SOURCE:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/506759.asp?0nm=V15M 

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