While most people watched in amazement as the nation’s top national security advisor resigned, Trump signed the first legislation passed by the new Republican Congress.
“President Trump signed his first piece of legislation on Tuesday, a measure that could presage the most aggressive assault on government regulations since President Reagan.
“The bill cancels out a Securities and Exchange Commission regulation that would have required oil and gas and mining companies to disclose in detail the payments they make to foreign governments in a bid to boost transparency in resource-rich countries.
“It is the first of a series of bills Congress is considering that would take advantage of the Congressional Review Act of 1996, which had been used only once before today. The act gives a new president and Congress the power to revoke rules and regulations promulgated by the previous administration in its final 60 legislative days.
The previous time the review act was invoked was in 2001 to overturn a Clinton administration regulation about ergonomics.
“It’s a big deal,” Trump said as he signed the measure in the Oval Office. “The energy jobs are coming back. Lots of people going back to work now.” The White House later issued a background paper saying the measure Trump signed “blocks a misguided regulation from burdening American extraction companies.”
“Hill Republicans are also seeking to use the Congressional Review Act to overturn regulations that would: prevent coal-mining operations from dumping waste into nearby waterways; restrict methane emissions by oil and gas operations on federal land; require federal contractors to self-certify that they comply with U.S. labor laws; require each state to issue annual ratings for teacher-prep programs; and introduce a planning rule for federal lands.”
It is not clear why this deregulation would bring back American jobs. It appears that it’s purpose is to disclose bribes paid to foreign officials to win contracts.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Trump thrives on being a disgusting person.
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How long is it going to take us to learn that every major story that comes out about this administration is a cover for some despicable action that the president is doing on his way to destroying something that is good. We need two sets of reporters — one to cover the “bombshell” story while the other covers his covert action. We could publish the stories in two side by side columns.
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Trump turning our clocks back y.e.a.r.s.
Waiting for a mandate to, again, consider KETCHUP an official school lunch “vegetable”, per Ronald Reagan.
#Lock’mUp!
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Lucy,
FANTASTIC IDEA!!! Please forward your idea to all the major news outlets. You are so correct! This is EXACTLY what we need!!!
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The next to last paragraph is the scariest. Our poor land…will be stripped and poisoned
Sent from my iPad
>
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There is no doubt that Obama’s last 60 days produced many rules and regulations intended to protect the land and vast areas of the sea. Republicans clearly want to exploit everything “public” for profit, without regard to any other consequences.
Here is a way to see what could happen with federal rules and regulations in education under the Congressional Review Act.
For USDE and the Higher Education Act, someone will have to identify the rules regulations put in place by the Obama administration during the last 60 “business days” before January 20, 2017. I am guessing that anything in the Federal Register from USDE dated after October 21 and before January 20 would qualify for elimination.
Congressional legislation is often written with “holes” that are filled later by departmental staff who promulgate rules and regulations that tweak the law.
These rules and regulations, added to the law, have to be published in the Federal Register, and go through a public comment process. That process is complicated and not for the faint of heart. Comments are supposed to address sections of the proposed rules/regulations, line-by-lin, with specific criticisms and suggestions. Only the most diligent followers of federal rules and regulations, most of these lobbyists, are even aware of how this process.
You can see how the rules and regulations and public comments were treated in this example–all eligible for cancellation by the Congressional Review Act if Betsy DeVos and staff choose to exercise this option. I think many in teacher education will be cheerleading if these rules and regulations vanished.
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/10/31/2016-24856/teacher-preparation-issues
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Back to the real news.
If the Republicans refuse to act the nation should be shut down .
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The regs re “Teacher Prep” programs referred to in the penultimate paragraph that they are about to demolish are the ill-conceived regs. issued by King that would rate Schools of Education on the basis of the test scores of students taught by their graduates. So maybe not everything is so bad. However the wholwsale way that this is being done without deliberation or debate based on resolutions one sentence long seems pretty awful.
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hjres58/text
Click to access FR-2016-10-31.pdf
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I noticed that the teacher prep refs may disappear but fear they will be replaced by for profit teacher prep
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I find this whole area very interesting because all of their constituents are for getting the big ol’ federal government out of their local education decisions. They want to abolish the Dept. of Ed. This makes it more difficult to push federally mandated testing and the Core, which some of their constituents view as an evil liberal plot. But I think the for profit sector is counting on buying off state legislatures, like they have tried to do here in CA, to expand charters, maintain testing and squash any accountability for charters. I think it is likely that on the Federal level the push will be to greatly expand the pot of money that will be given away to charter and other for profit experiments that is already in the ESSA. And of course, since govt spending=bad they will almost certainly “pay” for this increased spending by taking more money away from poor kids. But I am just a humble parent hoping to get my kids through this with minimum damage, so what do I know.
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This deregulation mania is truly toxic, dangerous and tragic to the nth degree. Trump and the GOP are determined to do as much damage to this country as they can possibly come up with. Hideous beyond words.
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You can almost hear them now in their town halls and communications with their constituents “We got rid of SO MANY regulations!!” The Fox News crowd will eat it up with nary a question because, of course, all regulations are bad.
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45 supporters, indeed, 45 himself, seem to be missing the skill set of critical thinking and the ability to use the scientific method to access/predict what will happen if they successfully plunder the planet as they seem to be doing….that is one piece of what scares the hades out of me when i look at their actions….
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Nobody is against creating energy jobs, but fossil fuel energy jobs come at the expense of the environment. We should be investing in solar and wind like Europe and Asia. A few blocks from where I live is an old US Air Force field with runways that are too short for today’s planes. Thanks to Obama it is being converted to a giant solar field, and that’s what I call some “hope and change.”
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