WEBVTT - How Midnight Regulations Work 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.840 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.600 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:12.600 from House Stuffworks dot Com? Hey, and welcome to the podcast. 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:15.920 I'm Josh Chuck's here. I am as always. How's it going? 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:19.239 You're the Andy Richter to your Conan O'Brien, as I 0:00:19.280 --> 0:00:23.520 like to say, I look a little more like Andy Richter. Right, 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:28.520 there's no con in amongst No, no tall seven foot tall, blanky, 0:00:28.680 --> 0:00:33.760 redheaded headed irishman. Yeah, pale man, it man, it's pale um. Yes. 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:35.519 But okay, so this is stuff you should know if 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:38.880 you couldn't tell by now. Um, and uh, we're gonna 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.400 talk about midnight regulation today, Chuck, what do you think? 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:43.760 I think that's a great, great topic. Okay, So Chuck, 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:46.160 let me paint a scene for you, right, Okay, anytime 0:00:46.720 --> 0:00:49.239 a president is is leaving the White House and a 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:52.440 new one's coming in, there are transition teams set up 0:00:52.560 --> 0:00:56.840 right right. Um, Basically, you have a bunch of people 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.960 who have been doing their jobs, you know, directing federal agents. 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:04.559 He's carrying out new policy, talking about new policy ideas, um, 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.560 and they basically need to pass this information onto the 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:11.800 next administration, so that you know, there's a smooth transition 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:15.600 of power. Ideal, ideally, this is what happened. They don't 0:01:15.640 --> 0:01:17.360 just put it in a folder called how to be 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:19.160 the President and leave it on the tusk of No, 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.720 that would be really really bad. Um. And uh, you know, 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:25.760 some some transition teams are more successful in others. A 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:29.440 president Bill Clinton had a terrible terrible time with it 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:33.240 when he came into power. Um, when he was leaving, though, 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:37.480 he gained a little more confidence. Uh when he left. 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:40.960 George W. Bush, the second Bush, took over, and when 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:44.800 his transition team showed up, they found, um surprisingly that 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.520 most most of the keyboards in the in the White 0:01:48.520 --> 0:01:52.040 House offices, the letter W had been removed. I love that. 0:01:52.080 --> 0:01:54.960 I think that's h It really is hysterical, just just 0:01:55.000 --> 0:01:57.520 the thought of and not politically speaking, but just the 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:00.600 thought of a president playing practical joke on on then yeah, 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:02.280 and all of his aids and yeah, and there was 0:02:02.280 --> 0:02:04.800 a whoopie cushion left in the chair of his office 0:02:04.840 --> 0:02:08.200 chair right yeah, kick me sign right. Um. So so 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:13.320 that was awaiting President Bush when he took over. And um, 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.040 there was a lot of other stuff awaiting him as 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:21.359 well in the form of midnight regulations. Uh. Clinton actually 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:26.399 published twenties six thousand pages of new regulations. Yep, that's 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:30.440 the number that we're waiting for his successor, and every 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:35.680 last one of them ran contrary to Bush's policies. So, um, well, 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:38.000 before we get into that, how about what what are 0:02:38.120 --> 0:02:42.040 midnight regulations? What's what's the definition? Uh well, I'm just 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:44.280 going off my brain here. I don't have a definition 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:48.560 to read, but it's basically, um legislation that a president 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:52.720 leaving president will try and uh slip through in the 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:56.360 waning months of their of their tenure, during their midnight period, 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:58.720 during their midnight period, which is from the time that 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:02.920 the election is held November until they leave office, basically 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.840 until the inauguration. And every every presidency has a midnight 0:03:07.040 --> 0:03:09.679 right there's there's the end of a presidency, and it's 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:12.880 those last few months. Um. But some are way worse 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:17.839 than others. Usually the worst midnight periods, the worst transitions 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.680 come when one party is losing control of the White 0:03:21.680 --> 0:03:24.680 House to another party and they just they do everything 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.520 they can to sabotage one another. So it's kind of roughs. 0:03:28.960 --> 0:03:32.520 It's so unfriendly and Uh, it's hostile. Yeah, it is. 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:36.040 It's a little disheartening, yeah, but not surprisingly. And basically, 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:39.720 you know, if you if you if you leave thousands 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:44.040 of pages of new regulations, Um, basically, what you're doing 0:03:44.160 --> 0:03:49.320 is you're you're either extending your influence as president beyond 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.640 the time that you leave the White House. Um, you 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:56.240 could be doing it to hamstring your handicap the next 0:03:56.280 --> 0:03:59.960 in the next administration, basically tying their hands, especially when 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:02.440 it's you know, when a Democrats taking over from a 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.640 Republican or vice versa. You know, the views run so 0:04:05.720 --> 0:04:10.200 contrary supposedly that um, you know, you want to keep 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:15.240 the policy making going, and when it's actually with a 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:20.240 midnight regulation, it's actually exceedingly difficult to um reverse We'll 0:04:20.279 --> 0:04:22.680 get to that in a minute. Many times it's it's 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:26.919 actually your legacy as a president has a lot to 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:29.640 do with these midnight regulations. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of 0:04:29.680 --> 0:04:32.960 times it's the it represents the more radical fringes of 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:35.760 a presidential agenda. Just amazing that the last two months 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.280 of an eight year tenure can have more of an 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:41.760 impact than the previous ye know, seven and uh, seven 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:43.720 years and ten months. Yeah, and well, the weird thing 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.480 is it's it's you can sit there and watch midnight 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:51.200 regulation going on right um there there, But it's not 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:57.040 an openly acknowledged activity, okay. UM, So to prove that 0:04:57.080 --> 0:05:02.080 it exists, some political scientists have actually, um done studies 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:04.839 on the Federal Register. The Federal Register is the complete 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:10.160 comprehensive guide to federal regulation, and um they published actually 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:13.479 they publish addendums to it every day. So UM, some 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.880 p some political scientists went back and looked at when 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:20.480 you know, the amount of pages published in the Federal 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:24.120 Register per quarter, per quarter, um, and they found that 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:28.640 in the midnight of a presidency, especially during um, the 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:32.200 transition of power from one party to another, the pages 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:36.000 the page volume increases like sevent So it's odd to 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:37.720 think that you would have to go prove it, but 0:05:37.800 --> 0:05:40.039 you know, the president's like, well, I'm just going about 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:43.159 my midnight regulation right now. It's it's it's such a 0:05:43.200 --> 0:05:51.120 cynical and sinister, democratically speaking tool, um, because the president 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:53.800 is no longer accountable and so many people don't even 0:05:53.800 --> 0:05:57.440 realize what's going on, and uh, it's it's going on 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:00.880 right now. I know you have a couple of things 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:03.680 you wanted to mention, right, Yeah, I mean I've got 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:07.039 a list. Uh, there's actually a great website called pro 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:11.720 Publica dot org. That's p r O dash publica dot 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:14.440 org and you can get a full list there of 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.080 the Midnight regulations at President Bush is trying to get 0:06:18.080 --> 0:06:21.800 through and UM not drawn judgment on any of them. 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:23.680 It's up to you to decide. But that's a good 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:26.160 website you can go to to actually read them and 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.080 get a status on whether or not it's UM open 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.480 for comment or close for comment or under review or 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.479 approved or finalized or in effect. And we'll get to 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.200 the comment part in a little bit too, right, Yeah, yeah, 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:42.760 we well let's let's let's talk about how it works. Right. So, basically, 0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:48.640 the legislative branch identifies a problem UM and says, well, 0:06:48.680 --> 0:06:53.120 we we could create this agency to address that problem, 0:06:53.360 --> 0:06:57.760 say the Environmental Protection Agency or the Securities and Exchange 0:06:57.800 --> 0:07:01.320 Commission or whatever, the FDA, it doesn't matter. All of 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:04.840 those were created by congressional mandate, right, But it's up 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:07.760 to the executive branch, the president's side, to make sure 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:11.560 that these these these mandates are being carried out. And 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.400 how that's carried out is left pretty much of the 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:18.440 discretion of the president. Congress can threaten to withhold funding 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.480 or something like that. Um. They can also repeal laws. 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:24.160 We'll get to that in a second too, But for 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:28.280 the most part, the president issues regulations or the executive 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:34.840 branch issues rules and regulations on how federal agency should act. Right. So, 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:39.840 if you have a really pro business president, they're probably, um, 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.760 not going to give the SEC a lot of power. Um. 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:47.720 And if you have somebody who's very much pro consumer, 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:51.640 the SEC will likely you know, look out for investors 0:07:51.680 --> 0:07:54.760 more through these regulations. Right. And it's it's a lot 0:07:54.760 --> 0:07:58.000 more than just investors. I mean, just about every aspect 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:04.640 of our lives as Americans is impacted by these regulatory agencies, 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:07.640 you know. I mean like the the the e p A, 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:10.720 the you and I have to go get um admissions 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.920 tests every year before we get a new tag. That's 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:17.600 e p A. That's a federal you know regulation. Um. 0:08:17.760 --> 0:08:21.480 We can't run around, you know, shooting heroin between our toes. 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:24.880 D A looks out for that kind of thing. Um. 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:28.520 And then there's just a lot more like profanity on television. 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:33.320 That's the uh f CC. So we're impacted in many, 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:37.600 many ways. This isn't like just some high up hierarchy 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:41.600 thing that's going on politically speaking, it's federal agencies are 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:44.920 actually where the government and the public touch. Okay, that's 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.480 good way to say it. Thanks, thanks a lot that 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.319 so okay, So we're impacted by this, and a president's 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:56.520 views will direct how much we're impacted. Okay. Um, So 0:08:56.760 --> 0:09:02.840 these new rules are created, Uh, the the Office of Information, 0:09:03.280 --> 0:09:07.240 Information and Regulatory Affairs, they review these things right exactly, 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:10.800 especially if it's big money involved. Yeah, hundred million dollar 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:14.559 impact or more on the economy annually. Right, that's when 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:17.280 they get you know, special attention, right right. Um, So 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:20.480 the the o I r A is supposed to look 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:24.280 at these things, these new proposals, these proposed rules, and 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:26.439 they're also supposed to well, they're supposed to look if 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:29.480 to see if these things are cost with a cost 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:33.160 benefit analysis. Um. They're supposed to look if the rules 0:09:33.200 --> 0:09:36.760 even needed, if there's any way to um, you know, 0:09:36.920 --> 0:09:40.040 use market forces to stimulate the change that these rules 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.400 are meant to address, and any competing theories that may 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:47.000 actually be better competing alternatives to the proposed rule. So 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.000 you can imagine for each proposed new regulation. This is 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:53.000 just supposed to take a lot of time. If the 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:56.720 O I R A signs off on the thing, um uh, 0:09:56.800 --> 0:10:00.360 an announcement gets published, and they actually publish an anouncement 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:03.280 in the Federal Register when they're first considering it. Then 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.760 they publish another announcement saying what the outcome was once 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:10.040 they once the O I R A signs off on it, 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:13.120 and it's published in the Federal Register either thirty days 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.600 for kind of smaller things, sixty days for big regulation, 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:20.960 it becomes law. And that's sixty day time period is 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:25.120 pretty important because what a president will do when they're 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:27.480 leaving office. If they hit their deadlines and get these 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.600 uh through quick enough, the sixty days is up before 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:32.560 the next president comes in, and it makes it a 0:10:32.559 --> 0:10:36.400 lot harder to undo what they've done. Yeah. Yeah, Once 0:10:36.400 --> 0:10:40.200 it's become law, you the process to repeal it is 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:43.040 pretty much the reverse of the process to have it 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.600 become law. You have to provide studies. Um, you have 0:10:46.720 --> 0:10:49.600 to provide alternatives that the president doesn't just come in 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:55.120 and wave his or her magic wand and say everything 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:59.120 my predecessor just said is wrong and it's gone right. Good. 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.840 Try but now and that's actually been a proposal to 0:11:01.960 --> 0:11:06.600 solve midnight regulation is to allow incoming presidents to repeal 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:10.800 any law passed in the in the midnight period. Um. 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:14.400 This is this is not necessarily the case. Um. This 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:17.439 has never been entertained as far as I know. Seriously, 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:21.520 there are some things you can do as an incoming president, right, 0:11:22.120 --> 0:11:27.679 um too to stop this regulation what you got so 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:30.920 once it's uh, the the new administrations in, they have 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:35.120 to show that why repealing it, um is a good idea, 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:37.360 And a lot of times you have to provide an 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:41.800 alternative form of legislation. And then um. Congress actually has 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.400 a tool as well, called the Congressional Review Act. And 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:49.440 this came about, which is ironic because the president that 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.440 signed that bill into law was the most prolific midnight 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:57.280 regulator of all time, Bill Clinton correct. Um, he had 0:11:57.360 --> 0:12:00.839 like twenty six thousand pages published in the regis. Second 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:05.200 to him was Jimmy Carter, whose presidency the term was 0:12:05.280 --> 0:12:09.400 coined after, um because he he just took this old 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:13.520 fashioned tool to a brand new level. Um. But yeah, 0:12:13.640 --> 0:12:16.800 Clinton signed the c r A in the law right right, 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:22.440 which basically repeals new regulations, allows Congress to repeal these 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.440 new regulations with the simple majority in the House and Senate, 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:28.960 and it still requires the president's signature though, so so 0:12:29.440 --> 0:12:31.720 it only works sometimes. And the only time that it 0:12:31.760 --> 0:12:37.360 works is when the president and Congress are controlled by 0:12:37.360 --> 0:12:40.880 the same party, right, um, Because if you have a 0:12:40.920 --> 0:12:44.400 president who is coming in and Congress is of an 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:46.920 opposite party, Congress isn't going to take up the c 0:12:47.120 --> 0:12:50.720 r A to repeal anything because they were with the 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:54.280 old president, right right. And then if you have a 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:57.079 president who's carrying on the same party from the old 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:00.960 president and Congress is new and of the their party, 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:04.319 they may take up, you know, moves to repeal anything, 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:06.720 and the president is not going to sign off on it, right, 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:10.199 And which explains partially why it hasn't been used that often. Um, 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:12.040 even though in two thousand one that was the case, 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:14.680 I think it was only used one time officially to 0:13:15.000 --> 0:13:20.880 repeal one of Billy Boys. Yeah, to repeal a regulations 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:26.720 that would prevent repetitive workplace stress injuries. Interesting, yeah, um. 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:28.160 I think one of the things that I thought was 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:31.400 interesting when I was reading this was one of the reasons, 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:33.559 because I thought, you know, why is it so easy 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:35.960 to get these laws pushed through with the final you know, 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.040 final minute. And that's exactly why. It's because this uh 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:42.120 they're overloaded with um you know, like you said, twenty 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:44.960 six thousand pages, but they're not given any extra staff 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:48.360 or anything. And I think I read UH one stat 0:13:48.440 --> 0:13:51.640 on one of these environmental laws that the Bush is 0:13:51.640 --> 0:13:54.840 working with the e p A for UM. They did 0:13:54.920 --> 0:13:58.200 the average time and it was nine seconds for the 0:13:58.200 --> 0:14:00.520 amount of employees that he had in the amount of comments. 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:03.760 Nine seconds to read one of these comments and respond 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:06.440 to it. Yeah, they went to two hundred thousand public 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.400 comments on one new piece of regulation in four days. 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.040 So that kind of answers your question why it's easy 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:14.080 to get these things through. Yeah, because don't forget the 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:16.000 o I r A is part of the Office of 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:18.880 Management and Budget, which is a White House office. The 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:22.280 federal agencies are directed by the president. UM, the the 0:14:22.280 --> 0:14:26.040 the group in charge of reviewing these proposals are directed 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:28.720 by the President. It's basically the executive branch running the 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:32.560 show on this new regulation. And you know that it 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:34.720 is it's very easy to get pushed through, and like 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.480 I said, it's very cynical use of power. And president 0:14:37.560 --> 0:14:40.760 is no longer accountable. Another proposal for any midnight regulation 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.680 is not to allow the president to propose any more 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:47.120 regulation during the midnight period, Like you can't make new 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:50.240 laws anymore. Sorry, you've been you know, you've either served 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.960 both your terms and somebody else has been selected, or 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:56.000 you've been ousted because someone else has been selected. Either way, 0:14:56.120 --> 0:14:59.680 your presidency technically ended in November five. Yeah, I think 0:14:59.680 --> 0:15:02.600 that would be more effective because basically what you would 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:05.240 do there is you would have a president who I 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:07.680 think a lot of times administrations kind of hold these 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.480 in their back pocket because they know why trying to 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.960 introduce its law when it can be debated and when 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:16.040 I can be impeached. Yeah, when I can be impeached, 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:17.840 when I'll just kind of hang onto this and tell 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:19.640 him on my way out and then just kind of 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.840 sneak it through the back door busch. Actually, um, I 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:29.040 heard it called the an eleven o'clock regulation flurry. Yeah, 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:33.120 because he his chief of staff, Joshua Bolton, apparently sent 0:15:33.200 --> 0:15:35.680 a memo out to all agencies saying, if you want 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:39.640 new stuff, uh, in prepared by June one, so we 0:15:39.680 --> 0:15:43.080 can have it passed by November one, which is well 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.960 before the deadline. Well, I think they did that because UM, 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:51.240 President Clinton famously did not get his through within the 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:54.000 sixty day period. He waffled until the end, and he 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.840 did well. He was busy with defending himself a lot 0:15:56.920 --> 0:15:59.520 of that time. That is not making excuses, but there 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:01.880 was a lot going on in his final years. Let's 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:04.920 just say that. Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely true. So yeah, 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:06.680 he didn't get his end on time, and so President 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:08.800 Bush is able to come in and get a lot 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.880 of those turned back. Well he he Bush, like Clinton 0:16:12.120 --> 0:16:16.440 and Reagan, UH issued an executive order that says just 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:19.680 anything that's under review right now that hasn't been published 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:23.960 in the Federal Register, it's suspended. But you can't you 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.040 can't just see that. You have to. You're fighting a 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:29.000 political fight a lot of times. When Busch came in, 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:30.880 one of the things that Clinton had left for him 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:35.320 was UM a new regulation on acceptable arsenic levels in 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:40.600 the water supply and UM just one that was just 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.480 one of them. Yeah yeah, yeah, UM. But you know 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:47.120 they would have an impact on business, and UM, as 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:49.080 we all know, Bush is so pro business. You could 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:53.400 also make an argument that he's anti consumer UM and 0:16:53.560 --> 0:16:57.880 he's just always kind of been on the side of business, right. Uh, 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:01.520 he didn't like how it impacted things like mining, the 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:06.040 mining industry, water. Um, the water boards who would have 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:10.320 to you know, step up their their water purification, not waterboarding. 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:15.760 Don't get confused that later. Um. So uh, he basically 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.240 said this one in particular suspended, and I'm going to 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:20.640 fight it to the death. And he spent a lot 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.760 of political capital after he came in fighting this regulation 0:17:24.000 --> 0:17:27.920 that he ultimately had to bite and you know, except 0:17:28.560 --> 0:17:31.280 and he ended up eating eight percent of them. And 0:17:31.400 --> 0:17:34.000 I think he was on record saying that he that 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:36.240 was a big mistake on his part, correct, because he 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:40.560 became painted as a basically an anti environmentalist from the 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:44.719 get go. But that's not necessarily to say that. Um, 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:48.160 that wasn't a deserved reputation from what he's doing right now. 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.160 Right most of and if you go to this pro 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:54.840 public A site, most of the midnight regulations he's trying 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:56.760 to get through have the letters E. P. A at 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.240 the front of him. So, um, regardless of what side 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:04.560 you're on, they are environmental issues, yes, yes, trying to 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:06.960 stay fair and balanced here, I could read a few 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:08.439 of them to you just by title. We won't get 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:10.640 into the because it would take too long. But UM 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:15.199 power plants be exempted from installing pollution controls. Uh. The 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:17.520 e p A may ease restrictions for power plants near 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.280 national parks. UM e p A may allow certain hazardous 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:24.399 waste to be used as fuel. I read another one 0:18:24.400 --> 0:18:28.560 about rocket fuel being allowed in drinking water. Uh. Fisheries 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.000 have been doing a lot of research on fisheries right 0:18:31.000 --> 0:18:34.960 now because I'm writing about fishing quotas and UM, there's 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:37.639 a lot of work being done to basically allow to 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:40.680 push the science out of it. As far as studying 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:45.240 fish populations. Yeah, there won't be any independent scientific review 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:48.000 right right. It's basically saying, deciding whether it has an 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:50.919 environmental impact, Well, the fisheries are going to be deciding that. 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:53.359 And I think we all know the fisheries are probably 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.520 gonna say, hey, let's keep fishing. Well let's I read 0:18:57.080 --> 0:19:01.280 somebody who's part of a special interest fishing fishery group 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.480 who's saying, no, no, that's not true. Well, we'll self regulate. 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:06.440 But I think it's one of those things that's yet 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:08.240 to be seen. Yeah, I'm a bit of a cynic 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:11.920 when it comes to things like companies self regulating themselves. Yeah, 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:13.879 there's not a lot of proof over the years to 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:16.480 kind of you know, back that up. I got another 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.600 one for you. Financial planners will no longer have to 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.000 disclose any conflict of interest in the advice they give 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:26.280 to anybody. It sounds like a good idea. Yeah, that's 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:29.480 a good one. Um. And there's one called the right 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:34.679 to conscience uh rule. Basically, it says that if you 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:38.879 are a healthcare provider, you you can't not hire somebody 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:43.840 if they would refuse to provide birth control, which basically 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:48.440 then you know you have you have protection. It's the 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:53.000 right to conscience is based on abortion, and a doctor 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:56.680 can refuse to you can't force somebody to perform an abortion. 0:19:56.960 --> 0:20:00.439 In other words, they have a right to conscience. This 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:04.960 so basically this extends that to contraception, which now kind 0:20:04.960 --> 0:20:08.919 of equates contraception with abortion, which has a lot of 0:20:08.960 --> 0:20:12.000 people a little nervous, right, And I think this I 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:13.760 don't think it's the same one, but it's another one 0:20:13.840 --> 0:20:17.199 has to do with abortion. It's federally funded institutions can 0:20:17.240 --> 0:20:20.199 turn people down for an abortion, um, for moral and 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:22.520 religious reasons. Yeah, I think that's part of the same 0:20:22.520 --> 0:20:26.320 one as pretty expansive. Yeah, yeah, so, um, there's a 0:20:26.359 --> 0:20:28.080 lot of stuff. We have a lot of a lot 0:20:28.119 --> 0:20:30.560 of big changes to look forward to. I also heard 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:33.320 there's some oil drilling going on now in a polar 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:37.280 bear habitat um. But uh, yeah, we'll look to see 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:39.159 what Obama can do because you know, a lot of 0:20:39.200 --> 0:20:43.120 these things very much fly contrary to things he's publicly 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.679 said he opposes. They they fly in the face of 0:20:46.760 --> 0:20:50.200 his views, but he may have a hard time doing 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:53.240 it because Bush did it write it sounds like, yeah, 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:55.920 I think regardless of what political spectrum, what side of 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:58.720 the spectrum you fall on, it's just fascinating to look 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:02.000 at the push in the poll of the transition, you know, 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:05.560 between administrations. It's fascinating. It absolutely is. And also, if 0:21:05.560 --> 0:21:07.640 you think about it, what Bush did with the right 0:21:07.720 --> 0:21:11.399 to conscience thing, he basically just set Obama up for 0:21:11.520 --> 0:21:15.440 a a national fight about abortion right out of the gate. 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:17.960 So it's gonna be really interesting to see how it's handled. 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:21.680 Because he didn't have enough to worry about. Here's this too. Yeah, 0:21:21.840 --> 0:21:26.240 so midnight regulations there you have it. Yeah, and you 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:28.720 know what time it is, right, it is time Josh 0:21:28.760 --> 0:21:34.080 for listener mail. Alright, so what do we have. I've 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:35.920 got a few quick ones today. I've got a couple 0:21:35.960 --> 0:21:39.560 of corrections because we get stuff wrong people. You might 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:43.000 not realize that this is largely unscripted. So we'll bring 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:44.520 up something we didn't even know we were going to 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:46.920 bring up, and sometimes we don't have the exact fact 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:49.200 on that, so we count on the listener to point 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:52.919 us in the right direction. Sometimes. Yeah, that's exactly what 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:56.959 happens in this case. Darryl Kowowski of Denver send us 0:21:56.960 --> 0:22:00.520 a message about the O c D podcast, and he 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:02.600 says he wants to make a correction on something about 0:22:02.640 --> 0:22:07.080 when I mentioned Chris Jackson the basketball player uh changed 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:11.520 his name to uh Mammad Abdulla rauf In, and he 0:22:11.520 --> 0:22:14.960 actually had Taurette syndrome, not O c D. There's kind 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:18.160 of a big difference. Uh, actually there's not really. Yeah, 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:20.960 so I will school you like a school darrel in 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:23.560 my email reply, or like Chris Jackson at school, both 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:26.720 of us in basketball. Yeah, but actually I'm not bad. Alright, 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:29.639 I'm pretty sure Chris Jackson could. Yeah, well, if he's 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:31.919 done tying his shoes, which was part of the problem. 0:22:32.440 --> 0:22:35.080 Tourette's and o c D actually are often misdiagnosed as 0:22:35.520 --> 0:22:37.359 one to the other because they have a lot of 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:40.119 the same symptoms. So one of his deals was he 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:42.760 spent so much time trying his shoes or to hit 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:44.920 the perfect shot be where he left the court. So 0:22:45.000 --> 0:22:47.480 that was actually Turette's at work. But they're very similar 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:49.800 in some minds. Hey, brief aside, have you ever seen 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:53.840 the documentary Twitch and Shout. No, It's about Turette's and 0:22:53.960 --> 0:22:56.480