Parting gifts

Not too many years ago there lived in Washington, D. C. a rather intense fellow named I. F. Stone; the mere mention of his name evokes a special nostalgia in the hearts of news junkies and Congress-watchers throughout the land. He certainly is one of my heroes.

I. F. Stone’s Weekly, as he called the four-pager he published, became required reading for political types; he famously spent hours reading the Congressional Record in search of priceless nuggets of news he could publish, news that had been overlooked by major outlets but that people needed, in his opinion, to know. He was usually right.

Here’s how he describes his work:

I tried to give information which could be documented so the reader could check it for himself. I tried to dig the truth out of hearings, official transcripts and government documents, and to be as accurate as possible. I also sought to give the Weekly a personal flavor to add humor wit and good writing to the Weekly report. I felt that if one were able enough and had sufficient vision one could distill meaning, truth and even beauty from the swiftly flowing debris of the week's news. I sought in political reporting what Galsworthy in another context called "the significant trifle" — the bit of dialogue, the overlooked fact, the buried observation which illuminated the realities of the situation.

I thought of Stone when I began thinking about today’s column; I’ve no doubt if he were still with us, he’d have been all over the subject weeks ago.

President George W. Bush and his administration are working feverishly to remodel as they see fit what’s left of the country we live in — mostly by removing some regulations in critical areas, creating new rules in others, or easing restrictions found inconvenient by certain industries.

I think it’s fair to mention that these are matters which the administration was unable to get through Congress in the ordinary course of business, and this is their final chance to leave what they hope will be a lasting impression.

According to the Washington Post,

The White House is working to enact a wide array of federal regulations, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment, before President Bush leaves office in January.

The new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era and could be difficult for his successor to undo.

Among the areas to be deregulated or eased are factory emissions, drinking water standards, and mountaintop coal mining. In fact, there are reportedly around 100 of these gems being put in place as you read this.

One rule, for example, would increase the level of carbon dioxide emissions allowed to a power plant; another would ease limits on coal-fired power plants near national parks as well as on oil refineries, chemical factories and other industrial plants.

And speaking of pollutants, the new rules will make it easier to dump mining slurry into the streams of Appalachia, while factory farms will be able to decide for themselves if they need a permit to dispose of animal waste into streams.

There’s something for just about everyone. There’s a rule to increase the number of uranium mining permits near the Grand Canyon, and another to allow public lands to be leased for oil shale development.

There’s a new rule extending the number of hours on the road for truck drivers, and another giving law enforcement greater surveillance authority.

The Post report points that a number of the proposed new or changed regulations come at a significant cost to Americans, individually or as taxpayers, such as new limits on family- and medical-related leaves and new standards for preventing or containing oil spills.

Bill Clinton famously put new regulations in place on his way out the door — I seem to remember, for example, regulations concerning logging in national forests — but the Bush folks simply undid those as soon as they came to power. They were able to do so because such last-minute regulations don’t become final until Congress has had 60 days to look them over, and Clinton put them in place so close to the end of his term that they weren’t final when Bush took office.

In this case, the more Machiavellian Bush folks have carefully seen to it that their work is done well before the 60 days starts running, with the result that it may take, literally, an act of Congress to undo any of them.

It may be that the lame-duck session of Congress will be able to intercept this particular pass; I hear they are working just as hard to prevent the havoc as the administration is working to wreak it.

Stay tuned, but mark the words of Molly Ivins: I just think it helps, anything and everything, if the people know. Know what the hell is going on. What they do about it once they know is not my problem.