The White House is currently delaying the completion of a final rule intended to protect a critically endangered whale species. Critics are concerned the Bush administration is giving special access to business interests and overemphasizing economic considerations in its review of the rule. The delay of the whale protection rule is indicative of a larger problem in the White House regulatory review process.

As of today, July 24, federal agencies are to be in full compliance with all the provisions of Executive Order 13422 (E.O. 13422), which amends the regulatory process for agencies, and the Final Bulletin for Agency Good Guidance Practices. Both documents were issued Jan. 18 and work in concert to bring significant changes to the way agencies develop and enforce public protections.

On July 6, a divided Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a 2006 federal district court finding that the National Security Agency's (NSA) Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures and the First Amendment's protection of free speech. Without ruling on the constitutionality of the TSP, the judges dismissed the case based on the plaintiffs' lack of standing.

On the heels of a congressional hearing blasting the handling of public information about air quality after 9/11, a June 25 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report indicates the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA) similarly failed the public post-Katrina.