Hoping to avoid controversy and lessen the chances Barack Obama would lose his second bid for the White House, the Obama administration allegedly delayed implementing controversial policies ahead of the 2012 election, according to the Washington Post.
Talking to current and former administration officials, the Post reported some agency officials were specifically instructed to not submit proposals related to the environment, worker safety, and health care, to allegedly ensure those proposals would not become public knowledge ahead of the 2012 election. But the delay in proposals reportedly resulted in the delay of a rules implementation or complete disregard of the proposal.
Legislation allegedly affected includes portions of the Affordable Care Act, such as what constituted “affordable” health care, as well as environmental bills that would determine the bodies of water that were to be federally protected, pollution controls for industrial boilers, as well as limits on silica exposure in the workplace.
The Environmental Protection Agency was largely affected by the delays, and according to a Senate press release from June, although Executive Order 12866, first signed by President Clinton and reaffirmed by President Obama, requires rules and regulations to be either approved or denied within 90-days: “Fourteen of the twenty rules submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency have been under review at OIRA for more than 90 days; 13 have been delayed for more than a year … Nine of the 10 Department of Energy rules under review at OIRA have been there for more than 120 days … ”
Though the Obama administration maintains that the delays for the proposals until after the election were purely coincidental, seven current and former administration officials told the Washington Post that the timing was intentional. Specifically, the officials reported that the motives behind the delays were purely political.
Although delaying any controversial proposals before an election is not unique to the Obama administration, the Post reported that the number of delays and the breadth of those delays went beyond those of all previous administrations.
Although the officials only agreed to speak with the Post on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of their story, a new report from the Administrative Conference of the United States, an independent agency that advises the federal government, reported similar findings.
Based on anonymous interviews with more than a dozen senior agency officials who worked with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, which is the group that oversees the implementation of federal rules, the ACUS report says internal reviews found that proposed regulatory changes “took longer in 2011 and 2012 because of concerns about the agencies issuing costly or controversial rules prior to the November 2012 election.”
Emily Cain is a spokeswoman for the Office of Management and Budget. In a statement, she said that the administration’s “approach to regulatory review is consistent with long-standing precedent across previous administrations and fully adheres” to federal rules.
She added that while OMB “works as expeditiously as possible to review rules,” the agency needs more time to examine those proposals that contain complex rules and are potentially significant.
Obama administration officials also added that a number of controversial rules were issued during Obama’s first term, which included limits on mercury emissions for power plants and altering Medicare eligibility under the Affordable Care Act.
Although the White House has tried to explain its actions, not everyone is convinced the timing was coincidental. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Oversight, Federal Rights and Agency Action, expressed his concern, specifically with how the delays impacted Americans and said White House officials should expect to explain themselves.
“Legal protection delayed is protection denied,” Blumenthal said. “I’ve spoken to officials at the top rungs of the White House power structure and at OIRA and we’re going to hold their feet to the fire, and we’re going to make sure they’re held accountable in a series of hearings.”