The Secret’s Over and Out: Bush Chemical Exposure Rule Killed
It’s no secret now. The Bush administration’s clandestine move to loosen the rules on how much toxin or dangerous chemicals to which workers can be exposed—and to make it more difficult to issue new worker protection rules—is now officially dead.
The U.S. Department of Labor announced this week that the proposed rule was unnecessary and withdrew it. The rule came to be known as the secret rule because of the Bush administration’s attempt to keep it off the public’s and media’s radar screen last year.
In January, as one of its first official acts, the Obama administration ordered work halted on the chemical exposure rule and other last-minute regulatory changes the Bush administration tried to ram through before leaving office.
Rule Freezes Bush Move on Chemical Safety, Can’t Stop Family Leave Change
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.
After Eight Years, We’re Burning BushWatch
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| Up in flames: 8 years of Bush debacles. |
Today, we bid farewell to BushWatch. That special section on our website where you could always go if you were in need of a little outrage or indignation over—repeat after me—”former” President Bush’s most recent slap at workers, gift to corporate cronies or bow down to extremist ideologues.
Click here, here, here, here and here for our five-part look back at BushWatch.
When we first started BushWatch eight years ago, we were sometimes genuinely shocked at the actions of this so-called “compassionate conservative” who had spent the entire campaign convincing voters he really wasn’t that extreme.
For example, he picked a Labor Secretary nominee (she later withdrew) who said the Labor Department staffers who disagreed with her opposition to basic worker protections like the minimum wage were “Marxists.” Now, that caught us off guard.
