Dems Find End Run Around Late Bush Regs

The Bush White House thought it was pretty clever rushing to get all its so-called midnight regulations finalized by Nov. 1 so they couldn't be immediately overturned by the next president, as many of Bill Clinton's parting gifts were. But congressional Democrats say they've found an obscure Clinton-era law that will allow them to strike down the rules anyway.

The Congressional Review Act of 1996 gives Congress the power to review and overturn any regulation finalized within 60 days of congressional adjournment, meaning a simple party-line vote could undo Bush’s policies. Better still for Dems, the move can’t be filibustered. Of course congressional actions are more ponderous than executive ones. One midnight-regulation researcher suggests that, to speed things along, Obama send Congress a bundled bill to strike every regulation he disapproves of. (More George W. Bush stories.)