W Post: For Obama Supporters, Time to Call In Favors

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/27/AR2008112702013.html?hpid=news-col-blogs

By Cindy Skrzycki
Friday, November 28, 2008; Page E10

Whether it's workplace injuries, beer taxes or family leave, it's payback time for Obama supporters in the regulatory arena.

As the Jan. 20 inauguration draws near, groups that worked hard to put a Democrat in the White House are jockeying to be first in line to make suggestions on health and safety issues after waiting through eight years of Bush deregulation.

"There are huge expectations among those asking," said Sidney Shapiro, a law professor at Wake Forest University and a scholar at the Center for Progressive Reform, a nonprofit research group in Edgewater, Md. "There is a lot of pent-up demand because we have gone so long with the stars not being lined up the way they are."

Labor unions and even business lobbies are linking their wish lists to the new administration's focus on economic recovery. A group of public-interest organizations recommended changes to the regulatory review system that it had fought under President Bush.

The nation's brewers are trying to persuade the new leadership to cut the $3.7 billion federal excise tax on the 211 million barrels of beer produced in the United States last year. The tax is collected and policed by the Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

"We believe, based on who our customer is and the rhetoric in the campaign, that these are people who deserve a tax cut -- a tax cut on beer," said Jeff Becker, president of the Beer Institute in Washington, which represents brewers, importers and suppliers.

FULL 2 page story at link.