On its way out the door, the attacks on American workers and on safety standards in the work place by the Bush Administration continue unabated. The US Department of Labor is working feverishly to “complete a new rule, strenuously opposed by President-elect Barack Obama, that would make it much harder for the government to regulate toxic substances and hazardous chemicals to which workers are exposed on the job.” Unlike executive orders, new regulations are no so easily reversed.
A new president can unilaterally reverse executive orders issued by his predecessors, as Mr. Bush and President Bill Clinton did in selected cases. But it is much more difficult for a new president to revoke or alter final regulations put in place by a predecessor. A new administration must solicit public comment and supply “a reasoned analysis” for such changes, as if it were issuing a new rule, the Supreme Court has said.
The proposed rule says that in assessing the risk from any particular substance, Federal agencies would have to gather and analyze “industry-by-industry evidence” of employees’ exposure to that substance during their working lives. The proposal would thus add an additional step to the already lengthy process of developing standards to protect workers’ health. The gambit is a play for time and reflects a callousness over the value of employees’ health and well-being. Support for the rule is coming from the chemical and energy industry in particular. This is little more than a disguised class warfare. The Republican era cannot end soon enough.
The full story in the New York Times.