From Government Accountability and Oversight
Like FERC, another ‘independent agency’ in fact taking White House direction
This is what a “Whole of government approach” to imposing an ideological agenda looks like
For those who haven’t followed the Institute for Energy Research’s revelations about the ‘independent commission’ Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), you should. See e.g., “Richard Glick’s White House Chats,” Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2022; Daniel Moore, “Threat of Summer Blackouts Looms Over FERC Chair’s Renomination,” Bloomberg.com, July 12, 2022; Catherine Morehouse, “GOP Probes FERC Chair Glick meetings with White House,” Politico, June 29, 2022 (IER’s website with the transparency campaigns records is here).
Courtesy of Energy Policy Advocates (EPA), we now see there is something of a pattern underway, and FERC Chair Glick’s White House Climate Office chats on that Commission weighing in and doing its part on the “whole of government approach” to ‘climate’ weren’t unique: documents just released in an Energy Policy Advocates v SEC FOIA case shows that SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s team also coordinated with the White House on their mammoth overreach, the highly controversial (and concerning) “climate risk disclosure” rule.
Email and scheduling traffic are unambiguous on this score. A few samples:
And, as the SEC’s production cover letter shows, SEC also is withholding 170 pages of EOP correspondence as “deliberative” (or, in the alternative, b6, “personnel file-type” information. Mmm, yes.).
“Independent agency” apparently means different things to different people. But the position the SEC have staked out is that the White House had a formal role in the SEC’s development of its CRD rule. Wut.
Also, GAO understands that the SEC’s lawyers have stated in meet-and-confers and even in status reports filed with the court that their delay in processing Energy Policy Advocates’ FOIAs was because they had to consult with the White House on what they should release or withhold.
So, last week EPA filed yet another suit for SEC’s correspondence consulting with the White House on the FOIAs. Clearly another one to watch.
BOHICA .
I had to look up BOHICA. Thanks, Sweet Old Bob. That made me smile.
Regards,
Bob Tisdale
PS: For those who don’t know, BOHICA => Bend Over, Here It Comes Again.
This is what an internal coup looks like. No one specifically voted for any of this, yet here we are. Let’s hope the brakes are applied firmly and unambiguously in the US midterms.
Lining up Obama to give you some more of where that came from, too 🙂
Interesting lead in picture. Are those supposed to be White Haired Men or Cigarette Butt Filters?
…
Thinking about it, I’d say they’re filtered cigarette butts since most politicians are Butt-Heads
with the famous Micronite filters?
Hah! Lack of diversity in principle and structure.
Unable to gain public acceptance for their policies the current administration (and Obama’s) is doing end arounds to push their Marxist agenda. Biden is the perfect useful idiot for this type of underhanded policy making. He doesn’t know what they are doing and wouldn’t understand if it were explained. Trump’s legacy will be the SCOTUS and the Republican refusal to OK Obama’s last SCOTUS pick is probably their only shining light.
Our government has become disgusting.
Leftist ideology corrupts everything it touches. The Democrat Party is openly corrupting “independent” Federal agencies.
The federal government is a hydra. Cut off one head, and two more appear.
In Texas, the legislature does “sunset” reviews of executive agencies from time to time, requiring that they demonstrate their worth, performance, and ability to stay on mission and keep budgets tight. They have been known to eliminate agencies altogether or pull certain responsibilities away and place them elsewhere. Not perfect by any means, but sometimes quite effective.
The new Congress should “sunset” all non–essential federal agencies or departments by passing a budget with them zeroed out. No money, no agencies. The bill should have a proviso that each agency, to be reinstated, must bring a detailed budget with an initial 50% cut to Congress for approval, subject to further congressional line item cuts or outright rejection. Along with the budgets, the agencies should also submit detailed data on all personnel along with their pay and longevity. Agency executive leadership down to the department or division level would have to reapply for their own jobs. Do these in order of priority so as to least affect important functions.
The only essential agency of which I am aware is the Department of Defense. Maybe the FDA, USDA, Social Security, parts of Health and Human Services, and Immigration/Border Patrol (not Homeland Security).The rest can just go the way of the dodo. (especially Education, Energy, Environment, Transportation, HUD)
Homeland Security should be disaggregated back to its component parts. It was formed as a misguided knee jerk reaction to the events of 9/11/2001. It turned out that Islamic extremism has been a largely impotent movement, but now, lacking credible foreign enemies, politics and White House interference has turned the Department inward against our own, freedom-loving, law-abiding citizens.
Disruption? YOU BET! Take a long time to sort out? YOU BET! Meanwhile, the remnants of the executive branch could exercise for real their business continuity plans.
Unrealistic? Certainly, but the only real power Congress has to fight the DC sewer is to pass laws revoking all or parts of certain laws (those would be vetoed by the president) or the power of the purse-string. Oversight would be effective, too, but Congress has long ago abandoned their oversight function. Unfortunately, many RINO, establishment Republicans wouldn’t go along with this.
Of course, the president would not sign such a budget. If so, he would be exercising the alternative, complete shutdown of the government.
Oh well, I can dream, can’t I?