N-BAF decision delay

November 18, 2008 at 5:34 PM

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Greg Harman
gharman@sacurrent.com

Hattiesburg scoops the germ-lab watchers this week with an article about Homeland Security's push-back on final site selection for the National Agro- & Bio-Defense Facility.

Being hotly pursued by area boosters, your own Expressive News (see "viral marketing"), and politico tophats in Kansas (though not so much in New York/Jersey or North Carolina, where spineless, unpatriots roost), N-BAF will land sometime around the time Obama is putting on his new suit as El Presidente official come January.

From the Hattiesburg American c/o the Butner Blogspot:

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration's lame-duck status could affect a long-awaited decision on whether to build a new federal research lab in Flora, and the choice is likely to be made now by the Obama administration.

A decision on locating the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility was expected in December, but Department of Homeland Security spokesman John Verrico said the agency might delay the decision until next year.

Mississippi Development Authority spokeswoman Melissa Medley said DHS' delay concerns state supporters of the lab.

“We're aware that if it's pushed out, it can mean changes,” Medley said, including increases in the cost to build the laboratory.

Verrico said a final environmental impact statement - which would recommend one of the six sites in contention - would likely be released the first or second week of December and a final decision made 30 days later.

That means the decision on the biolab's location could be made just days before President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in.

But it's more likely the decision will be made after Obama is inaugurated, said Lanier Avant, chief of staff to Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-2nd District.

However, while our $500 Million Jackpot Disease Center N-BAF languishes, other Bush agendas are spinning madly out the rapidly closing door ... Foul oil shale extraction in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, as well a slew of outright badnesses.

From Democracy Now:

As the media focuses on President-elect Obama and the transition of power here in Washington, the Bush administration is quietly trying to push through a wide array of federal regulations before President Bush leaves office in January.

Up to ninety proposed regulations could be finalized by the outgoing administration, many of which would weaken government rules aimed at protecting consumers and the environment. According to the Washington Post, the new rules would be among the most controversial deregulatory steps of the Bush era. They include rules that could weaken workplace safety protections, allow local police to spy in the so-called “war on terror” and make it easier for federal agencies to ignore the Endangered Species Act.

While it's nothing new for outgoing administrations to try and enact these so-called “midnight regulations,” the Bush administration has accelerated the process to ensure the changes it wants will be finalized by November 22nd. That's sixty days before the next administration takes control. Most federal rules go into effect sixty days after they've been finalized, and it would be a major bureaucratic undertaking for the Obama administration to reverse federal rules already in effect.