White House seeks control on health, safety
01/11/2004
The Office of Management and Budget wants to have the final say on releasing emergency declarations to the public.
By Andrew Schneider
Of the Post-Dispatch [copyright]2004, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
WASHINGTON - Under a new proposal, the White
House would decide what and when the public would
be told about an outbreak of mad cow disease, an
anthrax release, a nuclear plant accident or any other
crisis.
The White House Office of Management and Budget is
trying to gain final control over release of emergency
declarations from the federal agencies responsible for
public health, safety and the environment.
The OMB also wants to manage scientific and
technical evaluations - known as peer reviews - of all
major government rules, plans, proposed regulations
and pronouncements.
Currently, each federal agency controls its emergency
notifications and peer review of its projects.
But the OMB says peer review policies in various
agencies vary dramatically. And a senior OMB official
says his office has been ordered by Congress to take
"a greater role in evaluating what the agencies do."
On Friday, a nonpartisan group of 20 former top agency
officials sent a letter to the OMB asking the White
House watchdog agency to withdraw its proposal,
saying it "could damage the federal system for
protecting public health and the environment."
One of the signers, David Michaels, said: "It goes
beyond just having the White House involved in picking
industry favorites to evaluate government science.
Under this proposal, the carefully crafted process used
by the government to notify the public of an imminent
danger is going to first have to be signed off by
someone weighing the political hazards."
Continues at:
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