Rule Freezes Bush Move on Chemical Safety, Can’t Stop Family Leave Change

by Mike Hall, Jan 21, 2009

Just hours after President Barack Obama took office yesterday, the Obama administration put the brakes on dozens of pending and just-issued rules and regulations the Bush administration tried to ram through at the last minute.

Bad news: The action couldn’t stop changes in the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) implemented last week that make it harder for workers to take the leave.

Good news: The move blocked a proposed rule that could lead to increased exposure of workers to dangerous chemicals and toxins by changing the way worker exposure is measured.

Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff, issued a memo to all federal agencies and departments, ordering them to stop action an all pending rules and those issued but not yet implemented. The memo says it is important the Obama administration

have the opportunity to review and approve any new or pending regulations.

In its last few months, the Bush administration rushed to move new regulations that would weaken workplace safety, agricultural worker’ rights, and environmental and pollution laws, among others. The Obama administration is now examining the slew of Bush’s last-minute rules to determine which ones fall under the memo’s guidelines.

But many of those rules slipped under the wire and are not affected by the memo, including the changes to the FMLA, which took effect Jan.16. Says Debra Ness, president of the National Partnership for Women and Families:

Just days before the Bush administration leaves office, workers already under stress in our deeply troubled economy must now contend with harmful, unnecessary new restrictions on their FMLA rights. The new regulations restrict access to protections workers have relied on for nearly 16 years. Put simply, these regulations make it more difficult for employees to take the FMLA leave they need.

The FMLA allows workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year to recover from a serious health condition, to care for a family member with a serious health condition or for the birth or adoption of a child.

One proposed rule that now is blocked is the Bush administration “secret rule” on worker exposure to toxic substances. The rule was pushed by Bush political appointees over the objections of career health and safety professionals and kept secret until media reports in July revealed the plan. By adding extra regulatory steps to the rulemaking process, safety experts say the proposed rule could add another two years to the already glacial process of enacting new job safety regulations.

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