Obama moves quickly to overturn Bush rules on medicine, science and the evironment

In his final months in office, former president George W. Bush enacted several highly controversial policies that affect health care and wildlife. 

In just a little over a month in office, President Barack Obama has sidelined or overturned several of them, and has also reached back over the years to reverse policies enacted during Bush’s first term. 

A Bush administration draft plan to allow oil and gas drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts was sidelined by the Obama administration on Feb. 10.   

"To establish an orderly process that allows us to make wise decisions based on sound information, we need to set aside" the plan, said new Interior Secretary Ken Salazar who extended the public comment period on offshore drilling by six months.  Obama has maintained that expanded offshore drilling should be part of a larger energy blueprint developed out in the open with Congress, not within the departments of Commerce and Interior Department alone.  

On Feb. 27, the Obama administration announced its intention to reverse the so-called “medical conscience” rule, following a 30-day comment period. The rule gave health care workers the right to refuse to participate in services they consider immoral. The rule was vaguely worded and extended the right to refuse service to everyone from receptionists and janitors to hospital executives and insurance company CEOs. 

Opponents considered the rule, which took effect the day before Obama’s inauguration, a thinly veiled maneuver to limit access to legal abortions, contraceptives, and living will directives. 

On March 3, Obama overturned another 11th hour Bush regulation that weakened the Endangered Species Act and pitted federal agencies against each other.  The regulation allowed federal agencies to sidestep scientific evidence gathered by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service experts when launching construction projects that impact endangered wildlife.  

When overturning the regulation, Obama said he was restoring "the scientific process to its rightful place at the heart of the Endangered Species Act, a process undermined by past administrations."

The Obama administration will also move quickly to reverse some older Bush rulings. On January 30, Obama signed an executive order rescinding a 2001 Bush policy change that barred U.S. financial aid to international organizations that provide or promote abortions. First implemented by President Reagan and called the “Mexico City” rule, the policy is reversed whenever there is a change in ideology in the White House. 

Obama said the policy toward international family planning "has been used as a political wedge issue." He said his administration would  “initiate a fresh conversation on family planning, working to find areas of common ground to best meet the needs of women and families at home and around the world." 

The Obama administration plans to head off many of Bush’s midnight hour rules still in the pipeline before they take effect. On inauguration day, federal agency heads were sent a memo stating that they should freeze all Bush regulations in the pipeline.  Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag followed up with a Jan. 21 memo giving agency heads these options for dealing with Bush-era “rules which raise substantial questions of law or policy:” extending the effective date of a rule, reopening the notice and comment period, issuing interim final rules, and deciding not to defend court challenges to Bush administration rules.  

For a partial list of Bush’s midnight regulations and their current status, visit ProPublica. 

Related:

Medical conscience rule blends religion and medicine

Weird government science policies