Stem Cell, Climate Rules Among Targets of President-Elect's Team
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 9, 2008;
Page A16
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.
Bush's August 2001 decision pleased religious conservatives who have
moral objections to the use of cells from days-old human embryos, which
are destroyed in the process.
But Rep. Diana DeGette
(D-Colo.) said that during Obama's final swing through her state in
October, she reminded him that because the restrictions were never
included in legislation, Obama "can simply reverse them by executive
order." Obama, she said, "was very receptive to that." Opponents of the
restrictions have already drafted an executive order he could sign.
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.
"We have been communicating with his transition staff" almost daily, Richards said. "We expect to see a real change."
While Obama said at a news conference last week that his top priority
would be to stimulate the economy and create jobs, his advisers say
that focus will not delay key shifts in social and regulatory policies,
including some -- such as the embrace of new environmental safeguards
-- that Obama has said will have long-term, beneficial impacts on the
economy.
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.
California had sought permission from the Environmental Protection Agency
to require that greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles be cut by 30
percent between 2009 and 2016, effectively mandating that cars achieve
a fuel economy standard of at least 36 miles per gallon within eight
years. Seventeen other states had promised to adopt California's rules,
representing in total 45 percent of the nation's automobile market.
Environmentalists cheered the California initiative because it would
stoke innovation that would potentially benefit the entire country.
"An early move by the Obama administration to sign the California
waiver would signal the seriousness of intent to reduce the nation's
dependence on foreign oil and build a future for the domestic auto
market," said Kevin Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Before the election, Obama told others that he favors declaring that
carbon dioxide emissions are endangering human welfare, following an
EPA task force recommendation last December that Bush and his aides
shunned in order to protect the utility and auto industries.
Robert Sussman, who was the EPA's deputy administrator during the
Clinton administration and is now overseeing EPA transition planning
for Obama, wrote a paper last spring strongly recommending such a
finding. Others in the campaign have depicted it as an issue on which
Obama is keen to show that politics must not interfere with scientific
advice.
Some related reforms embraced by Obama's transition advisers would
alter procedures for decision-making on climate issues. A book titled
"Change for America," being published next week by the Center for American Progress,
an influential liberal think tank, will recommend, for example, that
Obama rapidly create a National Energy Council to coordinate all
policymaking related to global climate change.
The center's influence with Obama is substantial: It was created by former Clinton White House official John D. Podesta,
a co-chairman of the transition effort, and much of its staff has been
swept into planning for Obama's first 100 days in office.
The National Energy Council would be a counterpart to the White
House National Economic Council that Clinton created in a 1993
executive order.
"It would make sure all the oars are rowing in the right direction"
and ensure that climate change policy "gets lots of attention inside
the White House," said Daniel J. Weiss, a former Sierra Club official and senior fellow with the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
The center's new book will also urge Obama to sign an executive order
requiring that greenhouse gas emissions be considered whenever the
federal government examines the environmental impact of its actions
under the existing National Environmental Policy Act. Several key
members of Obama's transition team have already embraced the idea.
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.
Despite enormous pent-up Democratic frustration, Obama and his team
realize they must strike a balance between undoing Bush actions and
setting their own course, said Winnie Stachelberg, the center's senior
vice president for external affairs.
"It took eight years to get into this mess, and it will take a long
time to get out of it," she said. "The next administration needs to
look ahead. This transition team and the incoming administration gets
that in a big way."
Staff writers Juliet Eilperin, Spencer S. Hsu and Carol D. Leonnig
and staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.