One of my biggest worries since the election has been the end of term Federal Regulations that President Bush is trying and slip through while nobody was looking.

I was happy when I started to see more stories and coverage on this.

But I have to admit it is this story from Politico that has me absolutely thrilled.

Congressional Democrats are eyeing a little-known, Clinton-era law as a way to reverse Bush administration midnight regulations — even ones that have already taken effect.
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The law contains a clause determining that any regulation finalized within 60 days of congressional adjournment — Oct. 3, in this case — is considered to have been legally finalized on Jan. 15, 2009. The new Congress then has 60 days to review it and reverse it with a joint resolution that can’t be filibustered in the Senate.

In other words, any regulation finalized in the last half-year of the Bush administration could be wiped out with a simple party-line vote in the Democrat-controlled Congress.

This is huge, since it can protect us from many of the smog filled skies, and unreasonable search and “intelligence gathering” (among other things) that the administration is trying to slip in at the last minute. I feel so relieved that for a change, it appears that everybody is on the ball, and despite the best laid plans of the administration to try and angle it to get the rules to “stick” there is a way to back out of these last minute games.

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