Midnight Executive Orders

If you were keeping an eye out for late-breaking executive orders or rule-making by the Bush administration, take a look at this one. It's a doozy, exempting parts of the Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, Justice, Transportation, and the Treasury from collective bargaining rules on the grounds that their "primary function [is] intelligence, counterintelligence, investigative, or national security work. It is further determined that chapter 71 of title 5, United States Code, cannot be applied to these subdivisions in a manner consistent with national security requirements and considerations."

More to come on this in a story I'm working on now. But make no mistake, this is big news.