*Obama Positioned to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions
*Stem Cell, Climate Rules Among Targets of President-Elect's Team

By Ceci Connolly and R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, November 9, 2008; A16

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack
Obama<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Barack+Obama?tid=informline>have
compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive
orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White
House<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/The+White+House?tid=informline>policies
on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and
other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and
experts working with the transition team.

A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set
out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon
after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy
groups, Capitol
Hill<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Capitol+Hill?tid=informline>staffers
and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the
most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who
was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the
transition.

In some instances, Obama would be quickly delivering on promises he made
during his two-year campaign, while in others he would be embracing
Clinton-era policies upended by President
Bush<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/George+W.+Bush?tid=informline>during
his eight years in office.

"The kind of regulations they are looking at" are those imposed by Bush for
"overtly political" reasons, in pursuit of what Democrats say was a partisan
Republican agenda, said Dan Mendelson, a former associate administrator for
health in the Clinton administration's Office of Management and
Budget<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Office+of+Management+and+Budget?tid=informline>.
The list of executive orders targeted by Obama's team could well get longer
in the coming days, as Bush's appointees rush to enact a number of
last-minute policies in an effort to extend his legacy.

A spokeswoman said yesterday that no plans for regulatory changes had been
finalized. "Before he makes any decisions on potential executive or
legislative actions, he will be conferring with congressional leaders on
both sides of the aisle, as well as interested groups," Obama transition
spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said. "Any decisions would need to be discussed
with his Cabinet nominees, none of whom have been selected yet."

Still, the preelection transition team, comprising mainly lawyers, has
positioned the incoming president to move fast on high-priority items
without waiting for Congress.

Obama himself has signaled, for example, that he intends to reverse Bush's
controversial limit on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a
decision that scientists say has restrained research into some of the most
promising avenues for defeating a wide array of diseases, such as
Parkinson's.

Bush's August 2001 decision pleased religious conservatives who have moral
objections to the use of cells from days-old human embryos, which are
destroyed in the process.

But Rep. Diana DeGette<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Diana+DeGette?tid=informline>(D-Colo.)
said that during Obama's final swing through her state in October,
she reminded him that because the restrictions were never included in
legislation, Obama "can simply reverse them by executive order." Obama, she
said, "was very receptive to that." Opponents of the restrictions have
already drafted an executive order he could sign.

The new president is also expected to lift a so-called global gag rule
barring international family planning groups that receive U.S. aid from
counseling women about the availability of abortion, even in countries where
the procedure is legal, said Cecile Richards, the president of Planned
Parenthood Federation of
America<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Planned+Parenthood+Federation+of+America?tid=informline>.
When Bill Clinton<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Bill+Clinton?tid=informline>took
office in 1993, he rescinded the Reagan-era regulation, known as the
Mexico City policy, but Bush reimposed it.

"We have been communicating with his transition staff" almost daily,
Richards said. "We expect to see a real change."

While Obama said at a news conference last week that his top priority would
be to stimulate the economy and create jobs, his advisers say that focus
will not delay key shifts in social and regulatory policies, including some
-- such as the embrace of new environmental safeguards -- that Obama has
said will have long-term, beneficial impacts on the economy.

The president-elect has said, for example, that he intends to quickly
reverse the Bush administration's decision last December to deny California
the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles.
"Effectively tackling global warming demands bold and innovative solutions,
and given the failure of this administration to act, California should be
allowed to pioneer," Obama said in January.

California had sought permission from the Environmental Protection
Agency<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/U.S.+Environmental+Protection+Agency?tid=informline>to
require that greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles be cut by 30
percent
between 2009 and 2016, effectively mandating that cars achieve a fuel
economy standard of at least 36 miles per gallon within eight years.
Seventeen other states had promised to adopt California's rules,
representing in total 45 percent of the nation's automobile market.
Environmentalists cheered the California initiative because it would stoke
innovation that would potentially benefit the entire country.

"An early move by the Obama administration to sign the California waiver
would signal the seriousness of intent to reduce the nation's dependence on
foreign oil and build a future for the domestic auto market," said Kevin
Knobloch, president of the Union of Concerned
Scientists<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Union+of+Concerned+Scientists?tid=informline>
.

Before the election, Obama told others that he favors declaring that carbon
dioxide emissions are endangering human welfare, following an EPA task force
recommendation last December that Bush and his aides shunned in order to
protect the utility and auto industries.

Robert Sussman, who was the EPA's deputy administrator during the Clinton
administration and is now overseeing EPA transition planning for Obama,
wrote a paper last spring strongly recommending such a finding. Others in
the campaign have depicted it as an issue on which Obama is keen to show
that politics must not interfere with scientific advice.

Some related reforms embraced by Obama's transition advisers would alter
procedures for decision-making on climate issues. A book titled "Change for
America," being published next week by the Center for American
Progress<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Center+for+American+Progress?tid=informline>,
an influential liberal think tank, will recommend, for example, that Obama
rapidly create a National Energy Council to coordinate all policymaking
related to global climate change.

The center's influence with Obama is substantial: It was created by former
Clinton White House official John D.
Podesta<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/John+D.+Podesta?tid=informline>,
a co-chairman of the transition effort, and much of its staff has been swept
into planning for Obama's first 100 days in office.

The National Energy Council would be a counterpart to the White House
National Economic Council that Clinton created in a 1993 executive order.

"It would make sure all the oars are rowing in the right direction" and
ensure that climate change policy "gets lots of attention inside the White
House," said Daniel J. Weiss, a former Sierra
Club<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/related/topic/Sierra+Club?tid=informline>official
and senior fellow with the Center for American Progress Action
Fund.

The center's new book will also urge Obama to sign an executive order
requiring that greenhouse gas emissions be considered whenever the federal
government examines the environmental impact of its actions under the
existing National Environmental Policy Act. Several key members of Obama's
transition team have already embraced the idea.

Other early Obama initiatives may address the need for improved food and
drug regulation and chart a new course for immigration enforcement, some
Obama advisers say. But they add that only a portion of his early efforts
will be aimed at undoing Bush initiatives.

Despite enormous pent-up Democratic frustration, Obama and his team realize
they must strike a balance between undoing Bush actions and setting their
own course, said Winnie Stachelberg, the center's senior vice president for
external affairs.

"It took eight years to get into this mess, and it will take a long time to
get out of it," she said. "The next administration needs to look ahead. This
transition team and the incoming administration gets that in a big way."

*Staff writers Juliet Eilperin, Spencer S. Hsu and Carol D. Leonnig and
staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.*

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