The Bush administration is bypassing the process again. This time they’re using regulations to get around consumer and environmental rights.
…the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a regulation that would forbid the public release of some data relating to unsafe motor vehicles, saying that publicizing the information would cause “substantial competitive harm” to manufacturers…at the request of lumber and paper companies, gave Forest Service managers the right to approve logging in federal forests without the usual environmental reviews…the Mine Safety and Health Administration published a proposed new regulation that would dilute the rules intended to protect coal miners from black-lung disease…the Bush administration dropped a proposed rule that would have required hospitals to install facilities to protect workers against tuberculosis…Department of Labor, responding to complaints from industry, dropped a rule that required employers to keep a record of employees’ ergonomic injuries…
This story in the middle about how the adminstration took a problem and made it worse is particularly eye opening.
…In 1995, the National Transportation Safety Board issued a startling study on fatal truck accidents. …The board studied 107 crashes in which the truck driver survived and found that more than half resulted from truck-driver fatigue. Nineteen of the truckers admitted to falling asleep at the wheel. …Under regulations unchanged since 1939, truckers could drive 10 hours at a stretch and then had to rest for eight hours. The rules, Congress said, were to be changed to “reduce fatigue-related incidents and increase driver alertness.” At that time, both the Senate and the House were under Republican control, and lawmakers began debating what to do. …The truck-related accident death toll hit a new high in 1997; 5,398 people died. …Last year, the Department of Transportation finally issued a new rule, saying in a prepared statement that it would “save hundreds of lives” and “protect billions in commerce.” The change would increase allowable driving time from 10 hours without a break to 11 hours. But after 11 hours, drivers would have to take 10 hours off instead of eight.
And I thought the GOP was the common sense party.
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