Rulemaking Takes Center Stage?

While the fights over tax cuts and Don't Ask Don't Tell in Congress dominate the headlines, another set of titanic political struggles are currently raging in federal agencies. These are battles over rulemaking, and because rulemaking is a much more obscure process than legislating, reporters tend to ignore it. But if you want to understand what's going on in health policy, financial regulation or environmental politics right now, you'd be well advised to forget about major legislation in these realms--unlikely given the Republican victories in the congressional elections--and turn to rulemaking.

For example, environmental groups are furious with the Obama Administration because of its announcement just last week that it would be delaying new rules governing smog and toxic emissions.  The delay has garnered praise from business groups like the National Association of Manufacturers, but has outraged environmental groups, who suspect that this move signals the Obama Administration will also be going slow on greenhouse gas emission rules currently being developed by the Environmental Protection Administration.

Meanwhile regulators working on health care reform and financial regulation are set to issue more than 300 rules over the next three years, attracting massive lobbying by Wall Street and the health care industry.  These regulations, based on the two most significant laws enacted by Congress during the Obama Administration, will decide big money question like how much credit card companies can charge for their services and what kinds of medical procedures will be covered in insurance plans offered as part of the Affordable Care Act.  The House Republican leadership has already signaled that it will be examining these rulemaking processes, and the industries involved have let it be known that they will sue in federal court if they don't like what the agencies have done, so expect this battle to be protected, contentious, consequential--and largely ignored by the media.