White House Puts Politicians Over the Experts
February 1, 2007, Washington, D.C.
In typical stealth fashion, the Bush administration has quietly signed an executive order aimed at ensuring that experts who protect worker safety, the environment, health policies and more have no place in government.
The order calls for each of the federal offices to have a regulatory policy office run not by an expert but by a political appointee.
"The executive order allows the political staff at the White House to dictate decisions on health and safety issues, even if the government's own impartial experts disagree," Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) told The New York Times. "This is a terrible way to govern, but great news for special interests."
OMB Watch, a nonprofit research group that tracks White House policy, said, "The Bush administration has regularly appointed industry representatives or allies to oversee agency regulatory activities. Often this has been dubbed 'foxes in the hen house.' The executive order amendments add a new dimension by having the foxes control the hen houses."
