Learning more about the Congressional Review Act of 1996, which deals with acts of outgoing presidents in the last six months of their administration.

Executive orders are easier to undo, President Obama can come in with his own superseding executive orders. These include some executive orders that are classified that President Obama will be able to unravel. Things such as Guantanamo Bay and other very hot button issues are often contained in executive orders rather than regulations.

Those regulations, however, is really what concerns people the most because, a push for regulation at the end of an administration is akin to fouling the water well. It is almost a sign of contempt for the results of the election. [snip]

The Congressional Review Act is designed to prevent presidents in the final hours of their adminstration from creating this deadhand control. What is does is it creates something of a kind of fiction. It says if you push it through in the final days of your administration, it won’t be considered final until the new Congress comes in.

So if you do this closer at the end of the previous Congress, Congress gave itself extra time to reverse it.

That sounds good, so no prob, right? Hm:

The key here however is time..We’re not going to have a lot of time and we’re talking about a lot of regulations, and a lot of executive orders. And that’s why Obama reportedly has a team of dozens of people who are trying to unravel this very complex web of executive orders and regulations, to use that time efficiently.

Kind of high stakes chess on both sides. How much moolah can Bush-Cheney throw to their criminal buddies, and hide, versus what the Obama people can find and undo.

I like to think there are many hidden whistleblowers just aching to be of service to their country.