* * *
* * *
In the smallest stories we sometimes find the biggest
themes.
The small story of the past month has been dysfunction at
a backwater federal agency known as the Chemical Safety Board.
Yet in this tale of obstruction, bullying and lawlessness,
we find what is now the clear pattern of the Obama administration.
(*SIGH*)
If you've never heard of the CSB, join the rest of
humanity. Created by Congress in 1990, the CSB is charged with probing
industrial chemical accidents.
Like the National Transportation Safety Administration,
it's a rare entity with no regulatory authority; CSB's only job is to
investigate and make recommendations. Its board and staff have mainly been
wonky safety experts, and the agency largely devoid of political controversy.
That changed with this administration.
(*SLOWLY BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL*)
The scandal popped in late 2013 when the Environmental
Protection Agency's inspector general, Arthur Elkins (charged with CSB
oversight), sent a "seven-day letter" to Congress. Said letters are
rare, since they are used (reads the statute) to convey to legislators
"particularly serious or flagrant problems" at an agency.
(*CLOSING MY EYES, SHAKING MY HEAD, AND SIGHING*)
Mr. Elkins charged that CSB leadership was obstructing an
investigation into whistle-blowing retaliations.
* YEP! SOUNDS LIKE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION STANDARD
OPERATING PROCEDURE...
(*STILL SHAKING MY HEAD*)
The House Oversight Committee was alarmed enough to
initiate its own probe, the report of which was issued in mid-June, accompanied
by a humdinger of a hearing.
The star witness was Dr. Rafael Moure-Eraso, nominated by
President Obama in 2010 as CSB chairman. Mr. Moure-Eraso came out of academia
but had also spent 15 years working as an industrial hygienist engineer for
unions. The Oversight report shows he decided to unilaterally turn the
investigating body into a de facto regulator along the European model — ginning
up safety recommendations that would impose onerous new burdens on industry.
CSB staff told Congress that seasoned investigators who
tried sticking to the facts of investigations — rather than the Moure-Eraso
agenda — were bullied, humiliated in front of peers, and stripped of duties by
senior CSB leadership.
(Since Mr. Moure-Eraso took over, at least nine senior
employees - nearly one-quarter of the agency - have left. This has crippled CSB
investigations and piled up their costs.)
CSB once tended to get reports out within six months of
an accident; today the average is three to four years.
(*BACK TO BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL*)
It is still working on the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill
and has racked up $4.25 million in expenses on that investigation alone.
(The average CSB probe runs about $400,000.)
Mr. Moure-Eraso has shown equal contempt for fellow board
members, cloistering himself with handpicked senior staff and defying board
authority. When the board wanted more time to approve an annual budget, Mr.
Moure-Eraso ordered staff to spend money anyway. When the board obtained advice
from CSB General Counsel Chris Warner on how it might prohibit the chairman
from making more senior personnel hires without the board's (required)
approval, the chairman retaliated by demanding Mr. Warner's resignation. When
Mr. Warner refused, Mr. Moure-Eraso hired his own general counsel (without board
approval) and demoted Mr. Warner.
* FOLKS... WE'RE LIVING IN AMERIKA - WITH A
"K."
An Obama board appointee, Dr. Beth Rosenberg, resigned in
May — after only 17 months. She told Congress in June that those who disagreed
with "senior leadership" were "marginalized and vilified,"
and that the "level of dysfunction" had made her continuance
impossible.
* GEEZ, FOLKS... THIS FROM ANOTHER OBAMA APPOINTEE...!!!
Then there's the IG investigation. Turns out some CSB
employees went with complaints to the Office of Special Counsel, tasked with
protecting federal whistleblowers. The IG, Mr. Elkins, in 2012 began investigating
an allegation that someone at the Office — in violation of law — had informed
the Moure-Eraso general counsel, Richard Loeb, of the identities of the
whistleblowers. Concerned there had been retaliation within the CSB, Mr. Elkins
demanded that Mr. Loeb hand over documents.
Mr. Loeb has testified that nobody at OSC gave him names...
but we can't know... since he and Mr. Moure-Eraso refused to comply with the IG
requests!
He informed Mr. Elkins that the documents were covered by
attorney-client privilege — a stunt never before tried, since it utterly
violates the law decreeing that IGs have unfettered access.
(*SNORT*)
This is what prompted the seven-day letter, and Mr.
Elkins reported Wednesday that CSB is still refusing to give him documents.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
(*SILENCE*)
What's notable is just how familiar this tale feels. It
might be Gregory Jaczko, the former Obama head of the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission, whose fellow commissioners accused him of bullying and unilateral
action. Or maybe the National Labor Relations Board, where President Obama's
three illegally appointed board members joined with a never-confirmed acting
general counsel to churn out extralegal opinions.
(*SIGH*)
It has shades of the National Mediation Board, where an
Obama majority muscled out 75 years of established labor policy to help unions.
It feels like OSHA and its dust rule. Or the Justice
Department and its armed raid of Gibson Guitar. Or the IRS and its targeting.
Or Health and Human Services and its unilateral rewrites of ObamaCare.
(*CLENCHED JAW*)
It feels, in short, like President Obama.
The president says openly that neither Congress nor laws
will keep him from implementing his agenda. That attitude now seems to reign at
every [agency] in Washington, down to the teeny CSB.
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