Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Obama : Flurry of 'midnight' actions


Obama's  agencies  push  flurry  of  'midnight'  actions

 

But  in  Congress,  Republicans  are  warning  them  to  stop  and  are  preparing  to  repeal  those  regulations  en  masse.


Federal agencies are rushing out a final volley of executive actions in the last two months of Barack Obama’s presidency, despite warnings from Republicans in Congress and the reality that Donald Trump will have the power to erase much of their handiwork after Jan. 20.

Regulations on commodities speculation, air pollution from the oil industry, doctors’ Medicare drug payments and high-skilled immigrant workers are among the rules moving through the pipeline as Obama’s administration grasps at one last chance to cement his legacy. So are regulations tightening states’ oversight of online colleges and protecting funding for Planned Parenthood.

Also moving ahead are negotiations on an investment treaty with China and decisions by the Education Department on whether to offer debt relief to students at defunct for-profit colleges. The Department of Transportation may also go ahead with a ban on cellphone calls on commercial flights and a rule requiring that most freight trains have at least two crew members on duty.

Some agencies are pulling back, fearful that Trump and the GOP-led Congress will use a seldom-invoked legislative tool to permanently wipe out their 11th-hour regulations. For example, the Interior Department has failed to release a long-awaited rule to protect streams from coal mining pollution — and indications are it might never issue it.

But other agencies have signaled full steam ahead despite the threat of Republicans consigning their work to oblivion, in a dynamic that will be crucial to deciding how much of Obama’s legacy survives the ascendant Trump era.

"As I've mentioned to you before, we're running — not walking — through the finish line of President Obama's presidency,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy wrote agency employees the day after the Nov. 8 election. “Thank you for taking that run with me. I'm looking forward to all the progress that still lies ahead."

As many as 98 final regulations under review at the White House as of Nov. 15 could be implemented before Trump takes office. Seventeen regulations awaiting final approval are considered “economically significant,” with an estimated economic impact of at least $100 million a year.

Miffed congressional leaders are warning the agencies to halt their work on so-called midnight regulations, specifically objecting to Obama’s call earlier this year for “audacious executive action.” In a letter to agency heads on Nov. 15, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and every House committee chairman cautioned them “against finalizing pending rules or regulations in the Administration’s last days.”

“Should you ignore this counsel, please be aware that we will work with our colleagues to ensure that Congress scrutinizes your actions — and, if appropriate, overturns them.”

Trump has promised to wipe out as much of Obama’s regulatory agenda as he can, saying he will cancel “all illegal and overreaching executive orders” and eliminate “every wasteful and unnecessary regulation which kills jobs.”

One powerful weapon at Republicans’ disposal is the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 law that essentially allows lawmakers and the president to impose a death penalty on regulations they oppose. Come January, Congress can use the law to repeal any rule that an agency finished after this past May 30, using simple-majority votes — and afterward, agencies will be forbidden to enact any regulation that is “substantially the same.”

Republicans are seeking to make that tool even more powerful by pushing legislation allowing Congress to repeal bunches of regulations en masse instead of one at a time. Some GOP lawmakers are compiling lists of 100 regulations they’d like to kill in the first 100 days, POLITICO reported last week — lists that would include already-completed rules as well as those Obama’s agencies are completing in their year-end sprint.

Other rules may fall victim to court challenges, such as the Obama administration overtime regulation — set to take effect Dec. 1 — that a judge in Texas blocked on Tuesday. And Trump's administration may decide not to defend them.

Despite those threats, agencies are pushing ahead.

In one effort that seems especially doomed, health officials are scrambling to finish rules designed to further entrench Obamacare, even as Republicans plot to repeal the entire program. Just two days after voters swept Trump into power, the administration proposed rules for the 2018 version of the state insurance marketplaces.

The Department of Health and Human Services is also expected to follow through on controversial changes to the way doctors and hospitals are paid for administering drugs under Medicare Part B, an effort that both Republicans and Democrats have criticized. It’s also pushing an overhaul of the way it pays doctors who treat Medicare patients, moving toward a system that better evaluates the quality of care they provide — although these changes have bipartisan support and could end up surviving.

Separately, HHS may still move to complete a rule it proposed in September to stop states from defunding Planned Parenthood, even though axing the nonprofit’s funding will only gain momentum with the GOP takeover.

Also likely on the Republican hit list is an Obama administration effort to ease the flow of high-skilled immigrant workers into the U.S.

A final rule designed to help employers to sponsor and retain these workers would limit the grounds under which a visa petition can be revoked and would establish a one-time, 60-day grace period for certain high-skilled immigrants who change jobs. Under the regulation, immigrants with certain employment visas who lose their jobs would not have an approved green card petition automatically revoked. The provision applies to visa holders who are unable to obtain a green card due to immigrant visa backlogs.

The rule is due to take effect Jan. 17.

The change “would allow these high-skilled workers to more readily pursue new employment,” the measure reads. But it would hurt American workers, argued David North, a fellow at the anti-immigration Center for Immigration Studies. “There are no benefits for any resident workers who have been shouldered aside by the H-1B workers in these regs,” he said in a statement.

Also in the agencies’ year-end action plans:

Energy

Immediately after the election, EPA took preliminary steps toward regulating methane releases from oil and natural gas production — even though Trump’s win means that the overall effort to rein in the potent greenhouse gas is most likely doomed. In addition, the Fish and Wildlife Service released the final version of updated rules governing almost 1,700 oil and gas wells inside national wildlife refuges, and the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management released a major rule on leases for wind and solar projects on federal land.

Interior also released a final rule to limit fracking-related methane pollution on public lands a week after the election, prompting oil industry groups to file a lawsuit within minutes. And by Dec. 1, EPA faces a court-ordered deadline to propose a rule requiring companies that mine for minerals like gold and silver to demonstrate they can afford to clean up any pollution they cause. EPA is also awaiting White House approval for a rule governing emergency preparedness at chemical plants, in response to incidents such as a deadly 2013 fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas.

Less likely to emerge by year-end is a long-in-the-works Interior Department effort to update the so-called stream protection rule, a 1983 coal mining regulation designed to prevent water pollution from coal mining. Though the administration appears to be on the cusp of finishing the update, fierce opposition from Trump and GOP leaders means it would be a certain target for a Congressional Review Act repeal.

Whether Congress repeals the rule, or Interior never releases it, coal magnate and Trump backer Robert Murray said he’s confident the regulation will not survive.

“It’s gone,” he told POLITICO. “Hillary’s gone. It’s gone. Obama, the greatest destroyer in America, will soon be gone. There was never any need for this rule. It was an attempt to close underground coal mining. There is no environmental benefit from that rule. Never was.”

Education

The Education Department is finishing a long-awaited rule that would effectively force state regulators to step up their oversight of colleges that operate online courses in their states, even if they aren’t physically located there. But the regulation, which Republicans and many for-profit schools have criticized, won’t take effect until July 2018, which gives Trump’s administration plenty of time to delay or repeal it.

The department also still has to resolve an appeal by a college accreditor whose recognition was terminated by the feds amid concerns that it was approving too many dishonest for-profit schools. And the administration is rushing to fully implement one of its signature higher-education policy achievements: a rule that aims to cut off federal funding to college programs whose students end up with high loan debt relative to their income.

In addition, the Education Department is sorting through a backlog of tens of thousands of debt relief claims from students at ITT Tech and Corinthian Colleges, two troubled for-profit colleges that folded in recent years as the administration cracked down on allegations of fraud. The department previously said it expects to resolve the more than 82,000 pending claims by this spring — but given the Republican opposition to the administration’s debt-relief efforts, the department will face pressure to speed up the pace.

The department still has to finish a number of rules under the K-12 education law that passed last year, which shifted much power from the federal government back to states and school districts. Two of the most controversial regulations include a rule holding schools and school districts accountable for student learning and progress, and a rule that aims to ensure poor and minority students get their fair share of state and local education funding.

Financial regulations

After years of debate, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is striving to complete a rule on so-called position limits, a regulation that would place curbs on commodities trading by some investors to discourage speculation. But both Democratic and Republican former commissioners questioned whether the rule would survive after Trump names a new chairman to replace Timothy Massad, whose term ends in April.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is under pressure from the Credit Union National Association and other groups to freeze its rule making for now, including a controversial proposal to curb payday lending and another to limit the use of mandatory arbitration clauses that prevent consumers from taking companies to court. Both rules won’t be finished until at least next year.

Workplace safety

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is expected to issue its final rule before the end of the year to decrease occupational exposure limits for beryllium, a light metal used in the aerospace and electronics industries that poses risks for lung cancer when inhaled. The agency is also expected to finish a proposed rule to streamline standards for fall protection and working surfaces.

Transportation

The Obama administration is likely to take action before year’s end on rules and guidance that would ease the adoption of “connected” technologies, which allow cars to communicate with each other and with features such as traffic lights. The rules are also crucial to the eventual widespread adoption of self-driving cars.

Also on deck for possible movement in the next two months is a proposed rule prohibiting cellphone calls on commercial flights — a ban widely popular with the flying public, but one on which Trump's position is unknown.

Other candidates for quick action may include a Federal Railroad Administration mandate for two-person crews on most trains — a move unions have cheered amid freight railroad opposition — and a revised regulation to forbid the transport of lithium ion batteries as cargo on passenger planes.

Trade

Trump’s fierce denunciations of “stupid” trade deals would bode ill for any 11th-hour agreements to ease international commerce. But that’s not deterring the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, which has been pushing to wrap up a bilateral investment treaty with China before leaving office.

The agreement could open China’s market to more U.S. investment by easing a number of restrictions while reassuring Beijing that its companies won’t face discrimination in the United States.

“Those conversations are ongoing,” Trade Representative Michael Froman recently told POLITICO. “I think it’s important that it be a high-standard agreement that really reforms and opens up the Chinese economy and creates real disciplines to address the kind of problems our companies have had in that market. Again, we’ve made progress, but we’re not there yet.”
 
If a deal is reached, it would require ratification by two-thirds of the Senate, and it appears unlikely that Trump would be inclined to push for a quick vote. However, supporters hope he could warm to the initiative later in his administration.

As to other trade negotiations, only one has a realistic shot at being concluded this year: an environmental agreement that aims to eliminate tariffs on about 300 “green" goods. Working alongside 17 other members of the World Trade Organization, including China and the European Union, the U.S. trade office hopes to finish the negotiations at a concluding ministers' meeting set for Dec. 3-4 in Geneva.

Assuming the talks wrap up as planned, the question becomes whether the Obama administration could implement the environmental deal itself as an executive agreement, or whether Congress would have to vote on it. House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said it will depend on whether the final agreement changes U.S. law. If it does, the deal would have to be submitted to Congress.

Andrew Restuccia, Michael Stratford, Caitlin Emma, Patrick Temple-West, Lauren Gardner, Doug Palmer, Adam Cancryn, Cogan Schneier and Ted Hesson contributed to this report.

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/11/obama-regulations-231820 

Common Law Rebuttal to Obama regarding Syria


Republished in case you missed this the first time.  A reminder of one of the aggressions of the Obama administration against the people of our nation and against the sovereign nation
of Syria ....


OBAMA!!! You were denied permission to invade Syria! 

You are denied
permission to establish a no fly zone! 


You are denied any jurisdiction
to have any influence with Syria!

Read and remember! Signed: We THE People
 
 
 
Common Law Rebuttal from We THE People to the UNITED STATES CORPORATION’S public notice of the remarks on Syria on

September 10, 2013

Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation on Syria

Common Law Rebuttal of UNITED STATES CORPORATION’S public notice
To CEO Obama, the Crown, the Vatican, and the United Nations:

We THE People as the  de jure body politic established and according to the UNITED STATES CORPORATION’S own rules that a de jure assembly has superior lawfull standing to a de facto assembly, We THE People being of the de jure assembly do hereby formally rebut the UNITED STATES CORPORATION’s public notice of intended attack on the sovereign nation of Syria and are noticing you the de facto United States government also known as the UNITED STATES CORPORATION and all of your agents that we do not accept you proposal nor are we going to enter into contract with you on this endeavor by being silent. 

We THE People are telling you with a resounding NO this proposed action is not acceptable and it will not be carried out. Just a reminder to all of you who work in, for or with the UNITED STATES CORPORATION; none of you de facto actors, agents and contractors have immunity from prosecution as of Apostolic Letter by the Pope and the Declaration of Contempt of the Constitution for the United States of America is now lawfull legislation. 

You have been noticed by We THE People of the United States of America.

Notice to agent is notice to principal, notice to principal is notice to agent.
 
Comments to specific statements made by CEO Obama

To CEO Obama on your UNITED STATES Corporation's public notice to the people=Fictional Characters=14th Amendment in the De Facto=UNITED STATES Corporation’s charter=mission statement=unlawfull=Constitution of the United States of America for their Consent to act unlawfully: 

To the reader, please note, CEO Obama portrays the UNITED STATES as a government where it is a corporation.  With this said, CEO Obama requires consent from another Sovereign Nation in order to attack a Sovereign Nation like Syria.  In his speech he referenced both United States and United States of America.  There is a significant difference between these two.  United States is the reference to the UNITED STATES CORPORATION which is located on the 6.8 square miles known as the District of Columbia.  United States is not a Sovereign nation.  It being a private corporation is mere paperwork.  Now, the United States of America is referring to the Sovereign Nation of We THE People on the land of America.

Remember, We THE People who are the Lawfull Civilian Authority over the U.S. Military as the interim Constitutional Republic form of government operating under the United States Constitution 1789, Bill of Rights 1791 with the original 13th Amendment that prohibits persons who have accepted entitlements from foreign governments from holding public office is the true Sovereign Nation and lawfull form of government.

Thank you CEO Obama for recognizing the true De Jure Constitutional Republic form of Government. 

Obama Statement: The question now is what the United States of America=reference to Union of States men and women=De Jure Constitutional Government asking CONSENT to their contract to move forward on attacking Syria and the international community, is prepared to do about it.

People's Response: We are not consenting to contract with you or give you our consent to move forward to attack Syria.  The international community is working with all parties to satisfy the issue at hand by lawfull international peacefull means.  

Obama Statement: And that is why, after careful deliberation, I determined that it is in the national security interests=profits of the United States=Corporation to respond to the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons through a targeted military strike. 

People's Response: You want to place another Central Bank in a country which does not have one; you want to loot the people of Syria of their precious antiquities and natural resources including the natural gas pipeline; you want to place more debt on the backs of the middle class whom you state you want to eliminate; so there are two classes, YOURs and everyone else’s = poor.


Obama Statement: That's my judgment as Commander-in-Chief=CEO. But I’m also the President=CEO of the world’s oldest constitutional democracy.

People's Response: We THE People understand your statement however you fail to tell the rest of the story: 1) You claim to support a constitutional democracy but fail to mention in your claim the point that the Congress who was seated setting up the Act of 1871 was illegally seated in that session; 2) The Constitution you speak about is not the organic Constitution for the United States of America circa 1789 but the Charter or Mission statement for the UNITED STATES Corporation that requires the full reading into your unlawfull congress every 20 years to renew your Charter. The Charter is the Corporate Mission statement entered into and introduced as the Virginia Plan and was word-crafted to emulate the Constitution; 3) Your democracy would be the sheep's clothing over the wolf in this matter since the CEO of UNITED STATES Corporation or if you want President of the Constitution of the United States is in reality a Dictatorship or commonly referred to as an Oligarchy; 4) Your false presentation of three branches of government is so funny since the purpose of your Legislative body is to be the Board of Directors; your Executive branch is the seat of the Dictator while the Department of Justice reports directly to the President=CEO and the Crown=the city of London which=the Rothschild banking cartel . So, Mr. Obama, this is not a democracy as you would have us believe but an Oligarchy. This Oligarchy is packaged in a private corporation charter for profit. These fraudulent acts of non-disclosure of all the facts and tricking minors into adhesion contracts such as the birth certificate, social security number and drivers licenses has ensnared most of the population of the land into “voluntary” slavery to your territory of Washington District of Columbia.


Obama Statement: First, many of you have asked, won’t this put us on a slippery slope to another war? One man wrote to me that we are “still recovering from our involvement in Iraq.” A veteran put it more bluntly: “This nation is sick and tired of war.”
My answer is simple: I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria. I will not pursue an open-ended action like Iraq or Afghanistan. I will not pursue a prolonged air campaign like Libya or Kosovo. This would be a targeted strike to achieve a clear objective: deterring the use of chemical weapons, and degrading Assad’s capabilities.
People's Response: Mr. Obama, We THE People of the United States of America do not consent with your plan  to use drone warfare or any other type of warfare and we do not accept your contract.  Furthermore, your administration is known to We THE People of the United States of America and the International community at large to be the most prolific liars in the history of World. 

Obama Statement: And our ally, Israel, can defend itself with overwhelming force, as well as the unshakeable support of the United States of America=Union States men and women.
People's Response: Once again CEO Obama, We THE People do not give our Consent to attack Syria or support Israel attacking Syria.


Obama Statement: My fellow Americans, for nearly seven decades, the United States = UNITED STATES Corporation has been the anchor of global security.

People's Response: CEO Obama, you tend not to tell the whole story. Did you forget that in the 1940‘s Bretton Woods Agreements Act and the Pan American Treaty, fraudulently and unlawfully turned the United States De Jure Department over to the United Nations to be used as the global peace keepers=war machine for the Vatican and the Crown. 

Obama Statement: Indeed, I’d ask every member of Congress = US Corporation Board of Directors, and those of you watching at home tonight, to view those videos of the attack, and then ask: What kind of world will we live in if the United States of America =asking the Union States men and women to give consent sees a dictator brazenly violate international law with poison gas, and we choose to look the other way?

People's Response: Where is your evidence CEO Obama of Mr. Assad’s knowledge and participation in this event? What Videos? Videos can be falsified, edited and/or complete fabrications. Why do you continue to promote false flag events?  An email from a U.S. Intelligence Officer got out on the internet that was sent to his wife showing his comments about the video. He indicated that these were actors and not one person was injured.  There is no evidence that Mr. Assad used chemical weapons on his own people. There are however, more indications that the chemical weapons were used by the rebel forces if any was used at all. 
The Real United States of America will not consent to acts of aggression against another country based on such flimsy evidence and hearsay. 

Interesting statement by you:
Thank you. God bless you. And God bless the United States of America…
People's Response: This is strange and is not congruent with the demonstrated character that has been in the public since you have been in office.

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