WH Wants Final Say On Releasing Emergency Declarations To Public

[Oilwellian]

WASHINGTON - Under a new proposal, the White House would decide what and when the public would be told about an outbreak of mad cow disease, an anthrax release, a nuclear plant accident or any other crisis.

The White House Office of Management and Budget is trying to gain final control over release of emergency declarations from the federal agencies responsible for public health, safety and the environment.

The OMB also wants to manage scientific and technical evaluations - known as peer reviews - of all major government rules, plans, proposed regulations and pronouncements.

Rest of story here.

On Edit: I forgot to give credit to a new member named Jansu for originally posting this within another thread. He's still too new to post new threads.

[aquart]

1. I know. Another stupid, short-sighted policy

Guaranteed to grow teeth and bite him in the butt.

[foreigncorrespondent]

2. I other words...

...don't eat beef, or breathe air again, because they won't tell you jack shit.

[Cat Atomic]

3. Well sure. I mean- they were so quick to respond on 9-11.

How can conservatives stand these guys? This is just one more blatant power grab in a long string of blatant power grabs. I thought conservatives claimed to be about less government control?

[soup]

4. This is a test.

This station is conducting a test of the White House Office of Management and Budget System.

This is only a test.

Media moguls in voluntary cooperation with the White House Office of Management and Budget have developed this system to keep you in the dark in the event of an emergency.

If this had been an actual emergency the Attention Signal you just heard would have been followed by silence because we have decided an emergency at this time would be politically unsound.

This concludes this test of the White House Office of Management and Budget System. Go shopping. Love your neighbor. The adults are in charge.

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more from the article-
There were headlines across the country when the EPA's inspector general confirmed that the White House's Council on Environmental Quality had forced downplaying of actual hazards from the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings. And the OMB was faulted in congressional hearings for preventing the EPA from declaring a public health emergency regarding asbestos contamination in Libby, Mont.

"Incredibly, OMB's response to this widespread criticism about political interference in public health decisions is to come right out and explicitly propose to take authority over release of emergency information away from health, safety and environmental officials and transfer it into the hands" of John Graham, said Winifred De Palma, regulatory affairs counsel for Public Citizen.

The consumer advocacy organization was founded by Ralph Nader in 1971.

"OMB has no statutory or other express legal authority to impose this type of control on the agencies," De Palma said. "If the plan is implemented, it will mean that political considerations, and not public health, will be the administration's primary concern in the deciding whether to release health and safety information to the public in emergency situations."

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Thanks Oaf of Office and Jansu for posting this.

[buddhamama]

5. sigh...

I've run out of things to say with regards to this administration.

there are no surprises left. when the worst is revealed, i just shrug my shoulders and say, "well yeah".

this proposal and the Energy Bill taken together should give even the most ignorant,apathetic citizen pause.

The Energy Bill would allow for expansion of the industry with further deregulation and weakened consumer protections, throw this into the mix and we're all in trouble.

A corp. could build a new energy plant, without updated health & safety measures, an accident could ensue and the public would be none the wiser. when near-by residents stop dropping like flies then we'll know.

[Hubert Flottz]

6. All they want is a little absolute power,is that too much to demand?

The Republican plunderers(Bushco)are the same lying liars that tell their foolish believers, that they will fight the "Big Government's" control over every facet of your life or death! Bush does nothing for us, because he gets paid more by the big corporations! Bush wants to let toxic spills and such go unreported, not because it helps the taxpayer, but because it helps his bosses! More Deregulation without the consent of the taxpayer is clearly his goal here!


EDIT}}---Bush wants to hold your kids accountable but does not want to hold the people who would poison and rob your kids accountable! The Bushistas take the candy from the babies and give it to people like Himself, His Daddy, Kenny Boy, Bayer Crop Science, and Monsanto!