Eleventh Hour: The Politics of Policy Initiatives in Presidential Transitions

4. Ronald Reagan: Policy Retrenchment in a Friendly Takeover

4 | ronald reagan Policy Retrenchment in a Friendly Takeover In September 1988, Office of Management and Budget director James Miller III released a report that articulated an agenda for the remainder of President Reagan’s second term. The White House that boasted about the easing or repealing of federal regulations now identified 451 significant regulatory changes it hoped to accomplish in its last four months. Eight years earlier the Reagan team had denounced the burst of last-minute rulemaking from the EPA and the Departments of Labor, Interior, and Transportation, among others; the same agencies were now engaged in implementing Reagan’s eleventh-hour agenda. Though agencies never matched the output achieved at the end of the Carter years in terms of the volume of new regulations or pages added to the Federal Register, this burst of final activity is notable in other ways. Action was highly coordinated because the White House policy institution was centralized, and much of the agenda was antiregulatory. In addition, the increase in rulemaking at the end of 1988 defied expectation because the White House remained within the same party. The intramural nature of the Reagan-Bush transition is the most distinctive feature of this case study. Knowing the incoming administration would be led by George H. W. Bush meant that both opportunities and constraints arose for Reagan’s administrative presidency. The political fortunes of Reagan’s vice president and designated successor were aided by unilateral actions during the campaign. More controversial unilateral actions were saved for the post-election period, but some could have become an unwelcome distraction during Bush’s transition into the presidency had Reagan not acted quickly in his final days in office. Since policy continuity would be expected of an intraparty transition, the risk of the incoming administration reversing new rules or halting unfinished work was low. This continuity makes the regulatory surge at the end of the Reagan 68 • chapter 4 presidency all the more remarkable. Perhaps unexpectedly, some administrative actions, including new proposed rules, were not received enthusiastically by the Bush team. Other last-minute actions were more benign, including rulemaking that resumed progress on some of the very same regulations that had been halted after the Carter Administration departed. The number of federal regulations issued was relatively constant for most of Reagan’s presidency, after the initial review and revisions of some of Carter’s late-term rules. After the first flurry of rulemaking following inauguration, the other exception was a sharp increase in 1988. By year’s end there were 9,370 regulations, compared to 8,367 at the beginning of the year, representing a 12 percent jump.1 For example, during the final weeks agencies proposed new rules setting standards for worker safety and for creating mandatory drug testing programs. Other last-minute rules continued the administration’s agenda of regulatory relief. Despite the fact that most of that agenda was accomplished very early in the presidency, new rules, in particular to loosen restrictions on meat inspection and on coal mining in public lands, were proposed as late as November of 1988. The timing of those decisions meant that the Bush Administration would face the early decision of whether to implement or reconsider Reagan’s last-minute policies. Much of this last-minute activity was routine because agencies were under pressure from legislative and judicial deadlines to promulgate rules. In other ronald reagan • 69 cases, as seen in the previous chapter as well, agencies merely complied with internal deadlines to clean up the docket before the expected change in leadership . However, there were a few uncharacteristic regulatory actions at the end of Reagan’s presidency. Prior to the November election, new rules to protect the environment and worker safety were developed by agencies that had suspended or withdrawn similar initiatives eight years earlier. The interregnum period offered a window for some departments to pursue administratively their policy goals in public safety, resource management, and nuclear power, after the administration failed to accomplish them through legislation. Uncertainty about the 1988 elections prompted various interests to seek favorable policies in the last six months of Reagan’s presidency. Significantly, in 1986, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 65, a strict initiative to regulate food safety and toxic substances. Industry fears of a ripple effect, such as other states following California’s lead, or Congress responding with a tougher federal Food and Drug Act, created pressure for...