Not So Fast!
Getting his new administration off to a quick start, President Bush on Saturday signed an executive order establishing ethics standards for his new administration, formally submitted his Cabinet nominations to the Senate and moved to suspend a batch of 11th-hour orders by his predecessor.
The regulations issued by former President Clinton include new Medicare guidelines and environmental protections. With the stroke of a pen, Mr. Bush also proclaimed Sunday as "a national day of prayer and thanksgiving" and ordered a temporary federal hiring freeze until his new Cabinet members get in place.
Mr. Bush served notice with his 15-minute inaugural address that he planned to move ahead on themes he had sounded repeatedly during his presidential campaign: an education package, proposed Social Security and Medicare changes, a big tax cut and increased defense spending.
"We must show courage in a time of blessing, by confronting problems instead of passing them on to future generations," he said.
The president also instructed his chief of staff, Andrew Card, to issue a directive to the Government Printing Office to effectively halt a series of last-minute Clinton actions, said Bush administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Among the actions targeted are environmental restrictions on runoff from animal feeding operations, and more than 800 pages of new guidelines for managed care programs under Medicare.
Mr. Clinton left office with a flurry of decisions, many of which have drawn sharp criticism from Republicans.
Federal officials said Mr. Bush acted to ensure that the president's appointees have the opportunity to review any new or pending regulations.
Card's directive, expected to be announced later Saturday, imposes a moratorium that would prevent any new rules from being printed in the Federal Register - unless specifically approved by the incoming administration.
That would essentially block the most recent of Clinton's executive orders because most rules cannot take effect until a certain time after their publication in the Federal Register. It also puts a 60-day delay on any regulations already printed in the Register but which have yet to take effect, Bush aides said.
Older regulations would not be covered, but are actively under review by the incoming Bush administration. Many may be rescinded, Bush transition officials said.
The freeze would not affect pardons issued by Mr. Clinton in his final hours.
Imposing a freeze on rules has been done in the past by other incoming presidents.
Then-President Ronald Reagan used a similar technique in 1981 to block scores of last-minute executive orders by his predecessor, Democrat Jimmy Carter.
And when he took office in 1993, Mr. Clinton moved quickly to block several orders that Bush's father, George Bush, had put in place in the closing days of his administration.
One would have required federal ontractors to inform nonunion employees of their rights to get a refund of any dues withheld from their paychecks. The younger Bush may issue a new executive order reimposing that blocked order of his father's, the GOP officials said.
Mr. Bush also signed an executive order spelling out a code of ethics for members of his new administration.
And Card imposed a freeze on hiring of new federal employees "unless and until" a Bush-appointed agency head approves the hiring, preventing holdover Clinton officials from hiring new employees.