Midnight rulings and over-rulings
By Brennan Sang
Quickly after taking office, Barack Obama followed the lead of many past presidents and halted any rulings made by his predecessor that hadn’t yet been published in the Federal Register. While these decisions effect hundreds of rulings, there are three rulings that the Bush administration made before leaving office that directly affect us here in West.
The first is the Bush administration’s ruling to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list in the Rockies. Wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone in 1995-96 after a nearly 70 year absence. The original recovery goal was to have at least 100 wolves and 10 breeding pairs in the states where wolves were reintroduced. Today’s estimates place the wolf population at over 1,500 with a total of nearly 100 breeding pairs in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming .
After their second attempt to remove wolves from the endangered species list was overturned in 2008, the US Fish and Wildlife Service under President Bush announced a rule that would stop federal protection of gray wolves on January 14, 2009.
The freeze that Obama placed on Bush’s last minute rulings gives the new administration a chance to review, make changes to or possibly throw out the wolf delisting, as well as many other rulings that the Bush administration made in its final days.
In its final months, the outgoing administration put in place a new policy that allows people to carry concealed firearms in most national parks and wildlife refuges. This changes a 25-year-old policy restricting loaded firearms which was enacted by the Reagan administration.
The new firearm policy had already been published in the Federal Register when Obama took office, so the freeze doesn’t apply to this policy. Obama’s new Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, supported the rule change, so the future looks bright for those wishing to carry concealed weapons in Yellowstone.
Another contentious midnight ruling by the last administration allows National Park managers to make decisions regarding mountain bike trails in the parks. Prior to this ruling, bike trails in the parks were regulated by bureaucrats in Washington.
The new rule will make it easier to open trails to mountain bikers that are currently open to hikers and horseback riders. Under the old rules, opening existing trails to mountain bikes would often take months, and occasionally years
Many environmental groups opposed the mountain bike ruling , which was heavily lobbied for by the International Mountain Bicycling Association. The ruling will stand for the time being, as it was enacted before the Bush administration left the White House.
These sorts of last minute rulings are commonplace with outgoing administrations, especially when the political party in control of the office is about to change. It is just as common to see a new president come in and halt as many of the previous administration’s rulings as possible.