Top House Democrats are calling on the Trump administration to reveal the identities of those behind secretive efforts to deregulate the US economy.
The lawmakers sent a letter on Monday to White House aides who oversee the regulatory process. They said the rule-slashing initiatives appear to run afoul of laws on transparency and record-keeping, citing reporting by The New York Times and ProPublica,
“We believe the interests of the American public must be paramount when reviewing the worthiness of regulations,” the legislators said.
They called for the immediate release of details about those involved, and safeguards “against conflicts of interest, especially those in which industry lobbyists seek to overturn environmental and health protections for financial gain.”
The task forces are the result of an executive order issued on Feb. 27 by President Trump “to lower regulatory burdens on the American people.” ProPublica and the Times first revealed the secretive nature of the bodies in July.
In an ongoing series updated on Monday, the two publications have identified 85 task force members, despite seeing requests for basic information denied by “most government agencies.”
“Some appointees are reviewing rules their previous employers sought to weaken or kill, and may be positioned to profit if certain regulations are undone,” the Times said. Thirty-four appointees have potential conflicts of interest–including two who stand to personally profit, and four who have previously registered to lobby agencies they now serve.
“These task forces are eerily reminiscent of the secretive energy task force run by former Vice President [Dick] Cheney,” the Democratic lawmakers stated in their letter.
In 2001, the former oil company executive and his staffers held secret meetings with about 300 individuals and organizations to help formulate energy policy.
Six years later, The Washington Post was only able to identify a fraction of those who attended. Participants included former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay, then-ExxonMobil Vice President James Rouse, and 40 “interest groups, most of them from energy-producing industries.”
In 2016, the National Resources Defense Council said that the George W. Bush administration “incorporated their recommendations, often word for word, into the energy plan.”
The lawmakers who signed Monday’s letter were Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), John Conyers (D-Mich.), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) and David Cicilline (D-R.I.).
Cummings and Conyers are the ranking Democrats on the House Oversight Committee and the House Judiciary Committee. Connolly and Cicilline are the top Dems on subcommittees under each panel.
The quartet’s inquiry was directed at Mick Mulvaney, the White House Office of Management and Budget Director, and one of Mulvaney’s charges, Neomi Rao, the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Administrator. All drafts of “major” regulations are finalized by OIRA and OMB before being released.
