Back on topic...here is one of those trucking regulations that the last administration tried unsuccesfully to change twice in 03 and 05..and the courts threw it out twice.....and tried again in a "midnight" (the very end of his term), dump of hundreds of new regulations at the end of 08.
Quote:
This petition seeks review of the hours-of-service regulation issued by FMCSA on November 13, 2008 and published in the Federal Register on November 19, 2008. Like the identical rule issued by FMCSA in August 2005 and nearly identical rule issued in April 2003, the 2008 rule significantly increases the permissible number of hours that drivers may drive, both per shift and on a weekly basis. Under the 2008 rule, truck drivers may drive 11 consecutive hours before taking a break -- one hour more than permitted before the 2003 rule went into effect. In addition, under the 2008 rule, drivers are permitted to drive 77 hours in seven days or 88 hours in eight days -- a more than 25 percent increase over the pre-2003 limits. The permissible number of on-duty hours during which truckers may drive has also mounted: a driver working 14-hour shifts can now work as many as 84 hours in seven days or 98 hours in eight days -- a 40 percent increase over the pre-2003 limits.
http://www.citizen.org/litigation/br...hSafety/autos/
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What Merc does not understand in his fuck-filled rant (excuse me, his "patient" response) against the Democratic Congress in 2007-08, is that Congress does not write regulations...the Executive Branch does. Facts do matter.
In addition to the court case again, this one is also under review by the Obama administration, along with hundreds of other Bush regulations. It takes time to undo hundreds of bad regs, many of which loosened enforcement of existing regulatory programs.
The other means used to negate regulations over the last few years was simply not to "obligate" (spend) the funds. And again, Congress can only "authorize" and "appropriate" funds, it could not force the previous Executive Branch to spend those funds to enforce existing regulations.
Added:
More on Bush "midnight" regulations...by most measures, a new record!
Quote:
In President Obama’s first hours in office, he suspended pending rules and regulations from the Bush administration so that they could be thoroughly reviewed before they take effect. These so-called “midnight regulations” have been a source of controversy through several presidencies, but critics charge that the Bush administration has taken them to new extremes....
* The Bureau of Land Management issued a rule that would allow a recent upsurge in uranium mining permits near the Grand Canyon to continue. “If these claims go ahead they will be substantial mines with noise and dust,” just miles from one of the crown jewels of our national park system, Wilkinson says. Radioactivity from one mine near the South Rim has already leaked into the aquifer and a stream feeding into Colorado. “It is not a joke having radioactivity going into the Colorado River and into Grand Canyon National Park,” Wilkinson says. Evidently, the Bush administration disagreed.
* Narrowing of the definition of “navigable waters,” which critics say is a blow to the Clean Water Act.
* My favorite: The EPA came up with a rule that will now allow confined animal feeding operations to decide for themselves whether they think they pollute enough to have to apply for discharge permits.
http://www.cejournal.net/?p=739 (a partisan perspective  )
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Unfortunately some like the trucking regs above were dumped just before the 60-day "midnight" deadline so they cant be suspended or overturned w/o going through a much more cumbersome process.