The Washington Post explains here why even last minute regs are worth the effort.

While Republicans are already warning that they will reverse some of the rules Obama will issue during the last months of his presidency, White House officials are determined to move ahead, reasoning that having more rules in place will force the new administration to choose which ones are worth the time and effort of reversal.  .  .

A GOP Senate leadership aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a process that is still underway, said every committee is working to identify what rules under its jurisdiction might be reversed. Given the fact that each rule reversal takes up 10 hours of floor time in the Senate and that senators must also confirm key political nominees and pass a budget, the aide estimated that Congress was likely to overturn between five and seven of Obama’s last rules.

For the administration, that means full speed ahead.

So, the lesson from now for the future is that if, in eight or more years we are again in a position of having an access-to-justice engaged President leave office, we should do a better job to being ready to take advantage of this time.  Surely, much could have been done with the right preparation.

P.S. There is a complex statutory structure, not described in this article, that facilitates reversal of more recently enacted regulations, but that does not undercut the basic point of this post.