Obama halts all Bush Regulations!!

[bk1983]

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of President Barack Obama's first acts is to order federal agencies to halt all pending regulations until his administration can review them.

The order went out Tuesday afternoon, shortly after Obama was inaugurated president, in a memorandum signed by new White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. The notice of the action was contained in the first press release sent out by Obama's White House, and it came from deputy press secretary Bill Burton.

The waning days of former President Bush's administration featured much debate over what rules and regulations he would seek to enact before he left office.

The Associated Press: Obama halts all regulations pending review

 

[waltky]

Anti-corruption, bribery regulations to be revoked...

Republicans to kill U.S. rules on corruption, environment, labor and guns next week
Jan 25 2017 | WASHINGTON - Congressional Republicans are set to overturn a slew of Obama-era regulations next week, including a controversial anti-bribery rule aimed at U.S. resource companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp and Chevron Corp , according to a top lawmaker.

After six years of legal battles, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in June approved the rule requiring companies to disclose payments to foreign governments. It will probably be killed swiftly with two simple congressional votes. Other rules eyed for quick overturning by Congress include newly minted environmental, gun control and labor relations measures, sources said. Under the Congressional Review Act, Congress can use simple majority votes to stop recent regulations in their tracks. The timing in the law means that any rules that became final after May 31 could go on the chopping block.

House of Representatives Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the second-most powerful Republican in the chamber, had said he would start using that law quickly after President Donald Trump was inaugurated to help roll back regulations the party considers abusive. House Republicans have been on a blitz of regulatory reform, passing bills to drive down regulations' costs and create more congressional oversight. The Republican-dominated House will bypass the committee process and go directly to a vote by the entire chamber on a half-dozen resolutions, McCarthy's spokesman said on Wednesday. Further rule reversals are likely to come out of various committees, Representative Greg Walden, a Republican from Oregon, said on Tuesday.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are sworn in on the House floor on the first day of the new session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington​

Given the resolutions only require simple majorities to pass, they will probably sail through the House and then pass the Senate, where Democrats, the minority party, cannot mount a filibuster against them. They could then zoom to the White House for fellow Republican Trump to sign. But Walden also said the Congressional Review Act broadly wipes out entire regulations and forbids agencies from writing new versions in their place. That could be dangerous for a rule with some provisions that Republicans support, he said. Earlier this month, McCarthy said the House would try to kill regulations protecting streams and forests from coal mining's impacts, curbing methane leaks on public lands, and requiring employers to report workers' information as part of an attempt to end pay discrimination.

Reforming regulations is as high a priority as undoing the Affordable Care Act and rewriting the tax code, he said. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece on Wednesday, he also added a rule expanding background checks on gun purchases for disabled Social Security recipients to the hit list, as well as the anti-bribery regulation. Requiring companies to state publicly how much they pay governments in taxes, royalties and other types of fees for exploration and extraction was included in the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law. Regulators struggled for years to make it a reality as the companies said it would drive up their costs. Human rights group Oxfam in 2014 sued the SEC when it stalled on drafting the rule, and in 2015 a federal judge ordered the commission to fast-track it. The commission met the judge's deadline this summer, with the requirements set to take effect in 2018.

Republicans to kill U.S. rules on corruption, environment, labor and guns next week

See also:

Corruption watchdog report: Beware of populist leaders
Jan. 25, 2017 -- Transparency International's index, released Wednesday, warned that populist governments can make corruption worse and rated Somalia the world's biggest offender.

The Berlin-based advocacy group's annual "Corruption Perceptions Index" lists 176 countries according to perceived corruption in government, on a zero-to-100 scale, with zero being the worst. The world's worst, in order, are Somalia, with a score of 10, and South Sudan with 11, followed by North Korea, Syria and Yemen. Somalia has placed last in the annual index for the past 10 years. The best are Denmark and New Zealand each with a score of 90, followed by Finland, Sweden and Switzerland. The United States placed 18th on the list with a score of 74.

The non-profit organization said low-ranking countries typically feature untrustworthy police and court systems, misappropriated funding that leads to a lack of basic services, ignored anti-corruption laws and numerous examples of extortion against citizens. It added that many countries' populations look to populist leaders who promise to combat corruption, but do nothing about it once in power.

"In countries with populist or autocratic leaders, we often see democracies in decline and a disturbing pattern of attempts to crack down on civil society, limit press freedom, and weaken the independence of the judiciary. Instead of tackling crony capitalism, those leaders usually install even worse forms of corrupt systems. In too many countries, people are deprived of their most basic needs and go to bed hungry every night because of corruption, while the powerful and corrupt enjoy lavish lifestyles with impunity," Transparency International chairman Jose Ugaz said.

The report recommends "deep-rooted systemic reforms" to address imbalances of power, more public disclosure regarding corporate ownership and sanctions against those engaged in money laundering actions which move money across borders.

Corruption watchdog report: Beware of populist leaders