We’ve been reporting for months on the flurry of midnight rulemaking at executive agencies. Here’s the latest addition to the list: Health and Human Services today issued a final version of the “conscience rule.” It allows workers at health care facilities — doctors, nurses, pharmacists — to refuse to help provide services they find morally objectionable. Even a janitor could, conceivably, refuse to clean a room where abortions take place. “Many health care providers routinely face pressure to change their medical practice — often in direct opposition to their personal convictions,†said Joxel Garcia, the department’s assistant secretary of health.…
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It hasn’t been a good few months for the Interior Department. Interior’s inspector general, Earl Devaney, just released his office’s latest report (pdf). It examines how former deputy assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Julie MacDonald politicized the Endangered Species Act: We determined that MacDonald’s management style was abrupt and abrasive, if not abusive, and that her conduct demoralized and frustrated her staff as well as her subordinate managers. … MacDonald’s zeal to advance her agenda has caused considerable harm to the integrity of the ESA program and to the morale and reputation of the [Fish and Wildlife…
Update: Fifteen embassies have received envelopes containing white powder, State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said in a press briefing this morning in Washington. The embassies are: Berlin; Bern, Switzerland; Brussels, Belgium; Bucharest, Romania; Copenhagen, Denmark; Dublin, Ireland; Luxembourg; Madrid, Spain; Oslo, Norway; Paris; Riga, Latvia; Rome; Stockholm, Sweden; Tallinn, Estonia; and The Hague, Netherlands. Tests have come back negative in all cases save for The Hague, where results are still pending. Wood said the department has no information on a possible motive for the mailings.  Looks like the U.S. Postal Service is busy sending more than just Christmas cards…
Tom Daschle, the nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, wants to know how you’d change the nation’s health care system. That’s according to an e-mail sent by John Podesta, co-chair of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. He’s inviting people to create health care forum discussions about what needs to be changed and promises the transition team will take those opinions seriously. “Secretary-designate Daschle is committed to reforming health care from the ground up, which is why he won’t just be reading the results of these discussions — he’ll be attending a few himself,” Podesta wrote in the e-mail, sent…
President-elect Barack Obama announced Saturday that New York City Housing Preservation and Development Commissioner Shaun Donovan, will be the nominee for secretary Housing and Urban Development. As housing commissioner, Donovan expanded affordable housing in New York through plans to give tax breaks to developers who built affordable housing in upscale developments. He also launched a program to provide financial education, legal and credit assistance to those at risk of predatory lending. As HUD Secretary, Donovan will be charged with carrying out Obama’s top housing priorities, such as modifying terms of mortgages to prevent foreclosures and expanding the amount of affordable housing.…
An interesting bit of information from the Transportation Department: Americans drove 100 billion fewer miles in 2008 than in 2007. That’s the biggest decline in American history. (The news may come as a surprise to Washington-area residents — traffic hasn’t gotten any better around here!) It’s good news for the environment, but bad for the department, which depends largely on revenue from gas taxes to pay for highways and bridges. The Highway Trust Fund collected $3 billion less in 2008 than it did in 2007. And it underscores a key problem facing our transportation policy. Washington wants more fuel-efficient vehicles,…
When the transition to the new administration kicked off on Nov. 5, President Bush pledged his administration will fully cooperate with President-elect Obama’s transition team to ensure things go smoothly. But it appears not every Bush administration official has received that message if this article in the Orlando Sentinel is correct: NASA administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, is obstructing its efforts to get information and has told its leader that she is “not qualified†to judge his rocket program. The piece goes on to say that Griffin also telling federal employees and contractors…
We’re hearing this morning that President-elect Barack Obama has settled on a handful of appointments for key positions handling energy and environmental issues. Among the likely picks: Steven Chu, director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to serve as secretary of the Energy Department. Lisa Jackson, commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Carol Browner, former EPA administrator during the Clinton administration, to serve in a new White House position coordinating energy and climate control initiatives across goverment. Nancy Sutley, deputy mayor for energy and environment in Los Angeles, to head the White…
The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general, Richard Skinner, is worried that the stalled economy and ballooning budget deficit will prompt the next Congress to shift money away from the department’s management functions. So many of these programs are just starting to get traction. But they’re still woefully underfunded… we still need to invest in these management support functions. The biggest “traction,” Skinner said, is in financial management: The Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be able to offer clean audits by the end of fiscal 2009 (Skinner acknowledged that “it should have been done a year…
Wondering how the next Congress is going to approach acquisition issues? Answer: More oversight. That’s what Cathy Garman, a professional staff member for the House Armed Services Committee, said today at a panel discussion hosted by Venable, a Washington, D.C. law firm. The discussion centered on the acquisition management priorities of the next Congress and the next administration. Garman noted that Congress approved several changes to procurement regulations and procedures through the Defense authorization bills in recent years. The 111th Congress is going to make sure those changes have been enacted. Among the congressionally mandated changes topping the oversight list:…