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KU professor co-edits advice paper for Obama

By Brianne Pfannenstiel

Monday, January 26, 2009

President Obama has been in office for less than a week, but he is already receiving critiques on his performance and advice for what he should do next. Robert L. Glicksman, distinguished professor of law, co-edited a report sent to Obama urging him to take swift action to protect public health and the environment during his first 100 days in office.

Glicksman contributed to the paper titled “Protecting Public Health and the Environment by the Stroke of a Pen: Seven Executive Orders for the President’s First 100 Days” as a member-scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform. The group began work on the report before the election and sent it to the White House shortly after Obama was elected.

The report urges the president to issue seven executive orders that focus on climate change and environmental justice, transparency within the government and public health.

“We were urging him to act quickly as a symbolic gesture of a bigger commitment to health, safety and environmental protection than we’ve had in the past eight years and as a practical step that would move us in the right direction,” Glicksman said.

The group limited the recommendations to activities the president could make without assistance from Congress to expedite the process, Glicksman said.

“We recognize that Congressional action is likely to take a significant amount of time, but the president, unilaterally through executive order, could get it done with the stroke of a pen.”

Andrew Toth, Colby sophomore and president of KU Young Democrats, said he was impressed with the speed with which Obama has begun making important decisions.

“He’s been on the ball during the transition by appointing his Cabinet and his secretaries,” Toth said. “I think he’s kind of set the bar for himself and the pace he plans to take in pushing his agendas.”

Glicksman said he was pleased with what he heard during Obama’s inaugural address last week because Obama addressed some of the issues outlined in the report, including a desire to act quickly on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting renewable energy resources. He said he was also pleased to see that Obama had already begun increasing government transparency by issuing a memorandum that required government agencies to disclose more information to the public.

However, Glicksman said he was concerned that environmental and public health issues might take a back seat to things such as foreign affairs and the current state of the economy.

Alex Rock, Lawrence senior and Dole Institute Student Advisory Board coordinator, said he expected Obama to spend his first few weeks in office working to revive the economy.

“I think that the economy is the driving force right now,” Rock said. “I think he’ll be trying to make things more stable, working across parties and trying to find a fair way to pull us out of the recession.”

Jesse Vaughn, Mound City senior and KU College Republicans president, also thought Obama would be focusing more on the economy and foreign policy.

“I expect that probably even within the next few days we’ll see a bill for another bailout,” Vaughn said. “He’ll also have to decide what to do with the detainees at Guantanamo.”

Glicksman said that while he thought the state of the economy and foreign policy were important, he still wanted to make sure an appropriate amount of attention was given to other issues.

“I think environmental and health and safety risks can threaten the security of the nation in the same way that foreign affairs concerns can,” Glicksman said. “I think in terms of achieving economic security, a healthy productive population is more likely to achieve economic success.”

— — Edited by Realle Roth

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