If President-elect Barack Obama wants to set a different course than the Bush administration, which resisted and turned back critical health, safety and environmental protections, he can start by striking down his predecessor’s eight-year effort to tilt the regulatory field heavily toward big business and industry.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Peter Orszag, the incoming Office of Management and Budget director, and Cass Sunstein, who is expected to serve as Obama’s regulatory czar, Public Citizen reiterates its request that President-elect Obama make the health and safety of American families the underlying goal of all federal regulations.

The new president can take an important step in this direction by amending a key executive order to reverse the erosion of consumer rights that occurred under the Bush administration. Public Citizen, which was joined by other public interest groups, outlined in a letter sent to the transition team last month how the order could be drafted.

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