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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: T L Comiskey who wrote (34722)	1/11/2004 3:08:39 PM
From: laura_bush	Respond to of 89467

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." Full article: stltoday.com