Business Lobbyists Asked To Discuss Onerous Rules

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Business Lobbyists Asked To Discuss Onerous Rules

GOP Aide Identifies 57 Regulations to Target

By Grunwald

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, December 4, 2001; Page A03

Republican congressional aide Barbara Kahlow sent the e-mail to a dozen

business lobbyists on Sept. 26: " Here's our non-public chart, " it said. She

underlined " non-public " and put it in boldface.

" This was hush-hush, behind-closed-doors stuff, " one of the lobbyists

recalled.

Kahlow explained in her e-mail that President Bush's new regulatory czar,

D. Graham, had " asked me to convene key lobbyists to identify and rank "

regulations that business groups found overly burdensome.

Her chart listed 57 of the most paperwork-intensive rules the business

community wants to target. The rules, which deal with health, safety and the

environment, govern everything from pesticide use to coal-mine ventilation,

to standards for blood-borne pathogens. They cover such areas as air and

water quality, food labeling, lead-paint disclosure, truck safety

inspections, toxic-release reporting, and family and medical leave.

Graham, who became administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory

Affairs (OIRA) at the Office of Management and Budget in July, after a nasty

confirmation fight, acknowledged last week that he had invited Kahlow and

others to let him know about overly burdensome regulations. But he said he

had not seen Kahlow's chart of 57 " sunset review candidates " and pledged not

to change any regulations without input from affected agencies and the

public.

Still, the chart and other documents from a fledgling anti-paperwork

campaign provide another glimpse of behind-the-scenes strategy-setting by

business lobbyists and conservative Republicans in government, during the

Bush administration. In April, an industry memo urged lobbyists to get

" DRESSED DOWN " like " REAL WORKER types " for an event promoting the GOP tax

cut's impact on blue-collar families. In May, an energy lobbyist asking

people to pay $5,000 to join a corporate coalition to push the president's

energy bill warned in a letter that absolute unity was a must: " I have been

advised that this White House will 'have a long memory.' "

Now there is Kahlow's e-mail announcing an Oct. 2 meeting with trade-group

lobbyists and GOP staffers to discuss the 57 regulations. " We intend to

share the group's list with [Graham] confidentially, " wrote Kahlow, who

served for 25 years as an OIRA official before becoming deputy director of

the House subcommittee overseeing federal regulations. Her e-mail went out

to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent

Business, the Business Roundtable, the American Farm Bureau, the Associated

Builders and Contractors, the Associated General Contractors of America and

the Small Business Survival Committee.

The e-mail and the chart were provided to The Washington Post by a lobbyist

who attended the meeting, in the House Rayburn Building. The lobbyist said

he was disturbed by what he perceived as an " underhanded " campaign to use

obscure paperwork guidelines as a back-door mechanism to gut

long-established regulations. He said he was told that the campaign had

Graham's blessing, if not his fingerprints. The campaign is being run out of

the House Government Reform subcommittee on energy policy, natural resources

and regulatory affairs, which is chaired by Rep. Doug Ose (R-Calif.), who is

Kahlow's boss.

" This was a secret campaign to circumvent the process, " said the lobbyist,

who asked not to be named. " With Graham in that job, we figured we could get

whatever we want. "

Graham's background proved controversial when he was named to oversee the

federal government's various rules. He founded the Harvard Center for Risk

Analysis, a think tank that is funded in large part by industry groups and

individual businesses and that has argued that many regulations and policies

are misguided.

Graham's nomination as head of OIRA was opposed by liberal groups and

Democrats, who declared him an enemy of regulations. He responded that he

supported cost-effective, science-based regulations that promoted public

health and welfare and was confirmed by a 61-37 vote.

In September, he signaled his intent to take an activist role in a memo to

his staff, warning that " if not properly developed, regulations can lead to

an enormous burden on the economy. "

In an interview, though, Graham said trade groups might be surprised if they

think they will get " whatever they want " in his tenure. He said he had

invited business lobbyists and congressional aides to approach him to

discuss bad regulations, but that he did not remember telling Kahlow to

" convene key lobbyists " to pursue candidates for " paperwork & regulatory

burden reduction, " as her e-mail said. And echoing a point made by his

liberal critics, he emphasized that just because a regulation is onerous

does not mean it is bad.

" I am happy to meet personally with lobbyists of all stripes to discuss

burdensome paperwork and regulatory requirements, " Graham said. " However,

OMB will not order changes without considering the public benefits of these

requirements. "

Joan Claybrook, president of the advocacy group Public Citizen, said she

wasn't surprised that Graham didn't remember telling Kahlow to convene

lobbyists. She said he often replied to questions at his confirmation

hearing by saying that he didn't remember. She warned that the Bush

administration and its supporters in the business community had launched a

campaign to roll back health and safety regulations that protect ordinary

people from corporate malfeasance.

" There's no question where all this is headed, " she said. " These lobbyists

have no shame. "

Kahlow declined to comment. But it is no secret that business-friendly

Republicans in general and on Ose's committee in particular have pushed to

rein in regulations and paperwork. In August, Graham's staff gave Kahlow a

computer printout of government rules that produced more than 1 million

hours of paperwork a year. Ose then asked OMB to evaluate some of them,

governing new drugs, sewage sludge disposal and " safety management of highly

hazardous chemicals. "

Kahlow then whittled the printout down to 57 " candidates for discussion "

before the Oct. 2 meeting. The goal, several attendees said, was not just to

reduce unnecessary paperwork, but to persuade Graham to use little-known

provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act to try to weaken

paperwork-intensive regulations.

Jim Tozzi, Kahlow's former boss at OIRA, said in an interview that he used

to do just that, using paperwork technicalities as an excuse to review

otherwise untouchable rules. " I have to plead guilty to that, " said Tozzi,

who is now on the advisory board at the Center for Regulatory Effectiveness.

" The paperwork is a way in, you know? "

Another lobbyist who attended the Oct. 2 meeting said that even though

Graham was not present, he was almost there in spirit.

" There was the implication that it was something he would want done, if you

catch the fine line there, " said this lobbyist, who also asked not to be

named.

But Bill Kovacs, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce vice president for regulatory

affairs, said that even though his group supported the goal of reducing

government regulations, it was not impressed with the strategies floated on

Oct. 2. He supports a more systematic attack.

" You can't just put 57 regulations on the table and say, 'Go to it,' " said

Kovacs, who did not attend the Oct. 2 meeting but sent three staffers. " It

would be political suicide. "

Some of the 57 regulations, after all, are potentially inflammatory. For

example, some business groups would like to reshape the Family and Medical

Leave Act to stop parents from taking their leave in small increments, but

that could have significant political consequences. Unions would fight any

changes to the so-called -Bacon prevailing-wage rules on government

construction projects. The Bush administration might be reluctant to tinker

with food labeling rules, " needlestick safety " standards for hospital

workers and community right-to-know requirements that force industries to

disclose their toxic chemicals.

But regardless of the politics, the business community believes that many

regulations provide negligible benefits to consumers or workers while

inflicting unbearable costs to entrepreneurs. Larry Fineran, a National

Association of Manufacturers lobbyist who attended the Oct. 2 meeting, said

that paperwork was as good a place to start slimming down as any.

" The cost is just enormous, " Fineran said. " And so far, nobody's done much

about it. "

© 2001 The Washington Post Company