Revitalizing Cooperative Federalism by Limiting Federal Preemption of State law
As President-elect Obama and his transition team begin planning to implement the new Administration’s agenda, a flood of policy proposals can be expected to compete for the President-elect’s attention. Proposals to deal with the nation’s economic crisis surely deserve to top the agenda. This week, CPR issued Protecting Public Health and the Environment by the Stroke of a Presidential Pen: Seven Executive Orders for the President’s First 100 Days, urging President Obama to take steps early in his presidency to secure vital protections for the public health and the nation’s environment.
In particular, the white paper recommends seven Executive Orders that President Obama can issue, refocusing federal policy without need of legislative approval. Each is directed at filling a gap in the nation’s health and environmental protection laws. The Executive Orders are at once symbolic and substantively powerful. Each would symbolize the Administration’s commitment to health and environmental protection, making clear that the shameful chapter in the nation’s environmental history written by the George W. Bush Administration has ended. And each would yield important real-world health and environmental benefits.
One of the seven proposals falls under the heading of Removing Barriers to …
