Obama Halts Bush Orders

The new administration got right down to work on their first afternoon in the White House, with 15 Obama officials setting up computers, turning up the heat, and trying out their new office phones. But amid all the housekeeping came a more serious order of business: Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel signed an order authorized by the new president freezing all new or proposed regulations at all government agencies and departments until the new administration can review them. The order puts the brakes on all the regulations the Bush administration tried to push through in its last days. But Bush can’t be mad: Obama’s taking a page from the former president’s own playbook—he did it to Clinton.