In a First Act, Bush Blocks Clinton Orders
Deborah Charles 01/20/01
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Moving quickly upon taking office, President George W. Bush on Saturday issued an order that essentially blocked some of the last-minute executive orders and rules laid down by outgoing President Clinton.
The order was believed to apply to such orders as new regulations for managed care programs under Medicare and new environmental rules on runoff from animal feeding operations.
It would also apply to Clinton's declaration of the former military post of Governor's Island in New York Harbor as a national monument, a designation Clinton made on Saturday.
Bush's move did not apply to the 140 presidential pardons and 36 prison sentence commutations that Clinton issued less than two hours before his term expired on Saturday.
Bush's order, signed by new White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card and sent to the heads and acting heads of executive departments and agencies, said the decision was made ``to ensure that the president's appointees have the opportunity to review any new or pending regulations.''
``It's a way for us to conduct a more thorough and effective review of these last-minute regulations,'' Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
The order meant that no new rules could be printed in the Federal Register, which blocked them because the rules cannot take effect until they have appeared in the Federal Register for a period of time.
Bush also issued a 60-day stay on regulations that were published in the Federal Register but have not yet taken effect.
Some of the blizzard of rules issued by Clinton in his last days in office angered Republicans, particularly his decision to declare nearly 60 million acres of federal land, mostly in the western states, off limits to logging.
That order, however, came after a lengthy federal review period and would appear to be extremely difficult to withdraw.
BUSH DEMANDS INTEGRITY, DECLARES DAY OF PRAYER
Fleischer said the new administration had a variety of options on how to deal with Clinton's orders. ``I expect some will be repealed, some will be amended, some will be kept.''
In other initial items of business, Bush directed employees of his new government to observe ``the highest standards of integrity,'' declared Sunday a national day of prayer and enacted a hiring freeze.
In a memorandum to the heads of government departments and agencies, Bush said employees should not use public office for private gain. They should disclose waste, fraud, abuse and corruption to appropriate authorities.
``Everyone who enters into public service for the United States has a duty to the American people to maintain the highest standards of integrity in government,'' Bush said in the memo.
The memo, released less than two hours after Bush took the oath of office as America's 43rd president, followed Bush's campaign pledge to ``restore honor and dignity'' to the White House after the ethical lapses and scandals of the Clinton administration.
``It is a living and breathing reminder to our staff and to the nation of the importance that the president himself attaches to high ethic standards and government service,'' Fleischer said.
Card sent a separate memo to heads of executive departments and agencies, saying Bush froze hiring until a department or agency head appointed by Bush approves it. He also said each agency head will be instructed to develop a plan to meet Bush's goal of reducing management ranks.
Reflecting his deep religious convictions, Bush also signed a proclamation declaring Sunday a ``national day of prayer and thanksgiving'' to celebrate the peaceful transfer of power between him and Clinton.
``On this day, I call upon Americans to recall all that unites us,'' Bush said in the proclamation.
-- Uncle Bob (unclb0b@aol.com), January 21, 2001