Cheney son-in-law blocked post-9/11 chemical security

Michael Roston
Published: Friday February 16, 2007

The son-in-law of Vice President Dick Cheney, Philip Perry, has entered and exited the Bush administration twice, and as a consequence helped free the chemical industry from upgraded security measures in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, according to an article in the March edition of the Washington Monthly.

Philip Perry is married to Cheney's daughter Elizabeth, also a former executive branch official. An article in the coming month's Washington Monthly penned by Art Levine details his work in and out of the Bush administration since 2000. He describes Perry by saying that "A flippant critic might say the father-in-law has been prosecuting a war that creates more terrorists abroad, while the son-in-law has been working to ensure they’ll have easy targets at home."

Before entering the Bush administration Perry worked in the powerful Washington, DC-law firm Latham and Watkins, and also on the Republican side of the Senate. After joining the Bush-Cheney transition team in late 2000, he became the third-ranking official in the Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft. In 2002, he moved to the White House's Office of Management and Budget where he served as General Counsel.

It was in this role that he first blocked security upgrades on the chemical industry. When the EPA attempted to gain authority to regulate security at chemical industry facilities, Perry used the OMB to block the move. Levine reports that at a 2003 meeting in the White House, he told gathered executive branch officials that "If you send up this legislation, it will be dead on arrival on the Hill."

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