’)Word is that the incoming Obama administration will act quickly to do things by executive order that can have an immediate effect on a number of issues.
- Obama himself has signaled, for example, that he intends to reverse Bush’s controversial limit on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, a decision that scientists say has restrained research into some of the most promising avenues for defeating a wide array of diseases, such as Parkinson’s.
- The new president is also expected to lift a so-called global gag rule barring international family planning groups that receive U.S. aid from counseling women about the availability of abortion, even in countries where the procedure is legal…
- The president-elect has said, for example, that he intends to quickly reverse the Bush administration’s decision last December to deny California the authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from automobiles.
- Other early Obama initiatives may address the need for improved food and drug regulation and chart a new course for immigration enforcement, some Obama advisers say. But they add that only a portion of his early efforts will be aimed at undoing Bush initiatives.
Because not everything is regulated by Congress, which never legislated on stem cells, for example, a chief executive can make immediate changes in some areas by executive order. It will be nice to know that we’ll have a White House that recognizes that there is now something called science.
