WASHINGTON IS AT IT AGAIN

charkbait · 2012-03-30T13:32:00Z

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION SAYS NO PUBLIC INPUT NEEDED Denies Congress' Request To Allow More Comment On Oceans Takeover (03/30/2012) House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA) received official notice from the Obama Administration denying the Chairman's request for a 90-day extension of the public comment period on the draft National Ocean Policy Implementation plan. "President Obama issued an Executive Order imposing a new bureaucracy to zone the oceans that threatens to deter new economic investment, suppress job creation, restrict even recreational fishing, block energy development, and stretch far from the shore to affect farmers and inland communities," Rep. Hastings said in an official release. "Given the high economic stakes, the vast amounts of new red-tape set to be unrolled, and the fact that some 15 agencies spent over two years devising this scheme, it's unreasonable that the Obama Administration won't allow the American people more than just 75 days to review and comment on it," added Chairman Hastings "You may try to work it through the House, you may have the Speaker help you out, but I'll stop it dead in the Senate, because you're not going to mess with my waters in Alaska, you're not going to mess with my fishermen as you've done in the past," Rep. Young added, calling the Farr bill "bad legislation" and warning fellow Committee members that the bill was being pushed by an "overzealous group of people" who were opposed to fishing Despite the repeated failures by Rep. Farr to get his "bad legislation" out of Committee, President Obama initiated an executive order in July of 2010 which bypassed the entire legislative process and excluded from the debate all those concerns brought up by RFA and the Committee members themselves. RFA called yesterday's announcement by the administration the final act by a President who is clouded by his own agenda. "This isn't just about our oceans, but everything connected to our nation's waterways will now be under federal control through this executive order," Donofrio said. "It's a complete takeover of every lake, river and stream that flows into the Pacific, Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, along with all the lands within." In an October 17, 2009 letter to the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), Donofrio brought up the RFA's critical concerns that the Administration's Interagency Ocean Policy Task Force was treading dangerously close to violating the Constitutional separation between the Legislative and Executive Branch of government. "RFA believes that enacting laws through Executive order and proclamation sets a dangerous precedence," Donofrio said. "Some folks don't want to hear it, but the fact is that President Obama and his appointees have completely disregarded the legislative process, that they have ignored the requests by Congress, while supporting the input of environmental business leaders like Pew and Environmental Defense Fund over that of the American people," Donofrio said. "The only way to stop this federal takeover of our public resources now is to have a new executive order rescinding the previous one, and that can only be done by a new president." Pay attention folks. This stuff has far reaching consequences. The entire body of the minutes and other details will be on SAA once I get them formatted.

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