"Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Kinda cool" -- Paul Begalia.
NYT: July 5, 2000
Blocked by Congress, Clinton Wields a Pen
By MARC LACEY ASHINGTON, July 4 --
Congress appears intent on denying President Clinton major
legislative victories in his final months of office, but White
House officials say they will continue drafting and carrying out
policies, Congress or no Congress, until Mr. Clinton's final
day.
Through executive orders, memorandums, proclamations, regulations
and other flexing of presidential power, Mr. Clinton has already
put in effect a host of measures concerning the environment,
health care and civil rights.
And with the presidential campaign in high gear, and the
Republican-controlled Congress not inclined to give Democrats any
boost, Mr. Clinton's aides intend to continue making policy by
decree -- putting federal land off limits to development,
reorganizing government agencies, tightening pollution control
rules and pushing other measures that would otherwise stand
little chance of congressional passage.
Mr. Clinton has been especially frustrated that many of his
nominees for judgeships, ambassadorships and other posts have
failed to be confirmed by the Senate. But he is not surrendering
in that area either. If Congress fails to act on some of the
nominations later this month, White House aides say they expect
the president to make recess appointments in August that would
require no Congressional approval.
"This president will be signing executive orders right up until
the morning of Jan. 20, 2001," said Bruce N. Reed, the
president's domestic policy adviser. "In our experience, when
the administration takes executive action, it not only leads to
results while the political process is stuck in neutral, but it
often spurs Congress to follow suit."
Last Saturday, in a radio address on high prices for gasoline and
other fuels, Mr. Clinton said that if Congress did not act, he
would use his own authority to create a home-heating-oil reserve
to help avoid shortages in the Northeast. The House has approved
such a reserve, but the Senate has not acted on the proposal.
Mr. Clinton said he had asked Energy Secretary Bill Richardson
"to take the steps necessary to create a reserve through
administrative authority if Congress does fail to act, so that a
heating oil reserve will be in place next winter."
Another goal of executive actions these days, of course, is to
aid Vice President Al Gore's presidential bid. It was Mr.
Clinton who signed the order earlier this year granting increased
protection to 250,000 acres of federal land in Oregon and
Washington State. But it was Mr. Gore who announced the creation
of the Cascade-Siskiyou and Hanford Reach National Monuments, an
act that pleased environmentalists.
"I think what this president is doing is pretty typical when
Congress is controlled by the other party," said Louis Fisher,
who has studied executive authority for the Congressional
Research Service. "Certainly, Nixon did the same thing."
But the fact that presidents in both parties have engaged in the
practice -- President George Washington, a Federalist, issued the
first one in 1793 dealing with American neutrality in the war
between Britain and France -- does not assuage the frustration on
Capitol Hill.
Lawmakers argue that the Constitution gives them, not Mr.
Clinton, the authority to pass laws.
"Even though I disagree with the president on many of the issues,
the bigger concern is the erosion of the foundation that our
founding fathers put in place," said Senator Chuck Hagel,
Republican of Nebraska. "It's very dangerous for a president to
implement policy by essentially debasing the constitutional
structure."
Republicans have complained most fervently about Mr. Clinton's
liberal use of the Antiquities Act of 1906 to protect "objects of
historic and scientific interest." The protests began in earnest
in 1996 when Mr. Clinton set up the 1.7 million-acre Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, which was opposed
by Republican lawmakers in the state. Recent presidential
directives protect land in California, Arizona and other states.
Mr. Clinton points to his predecessors to justify his approach.
Former President Jimmy Carter, for instance, signed an order
creating a national monument in Alaska that exceeded 53 million
acres. Mr. Clinton now holds the record for total land set aside
in the lower 48 states.
On Friday, asked about whether he was overstepping his role, Mr.
Clinton delivered an impromptu history of the executive branch
that compared his actions with those of other presidents. Mr.
Clinton acknowledged that the office he holds has grown over the
years, but he said many of his predecessors have advanced the
power of the presidency without interrupting the constitutional
balance envisioned by the founders.
No consensus has emerged on Capitol Hill on whether future
presidents ought to be reined in. Legislation limiting the acres
that presidents can protect with the stroke of a pen cleared the
House but not the Senate. Bills requiring Mr. Clinton to justify
his executive orders to Congress or win subsequent approval from
lawmakers have also stalled.
Just once has a court ruled that Mr. Clinton has overstepped his
bounds, after he signed an order in 1995 that banned awarding
federal contracts to employers that permanently replace striking
employees. Several members of Congress filed suit to block
another order to protect rivers, but a federal court ruled that
the lawmakers' injury was "clearly institutional rather than
personal." In another instance, the House voted in 1998 to deny
money to carry out an executive order dealing with when the
federal government could get involved in state and local matters.
Mr. Clinton later withdrew the order.
Executive actions can be undone just as quickly as they were put
in effect. But White House officials say a future president
would face political constraints against reducing protections on
federal lands. On other matters, Mr. Clinton himself showed how
quickly presidential declarations can disappear.
Days after Mr. Clinton took office in 1993, he told Donna E.
Shalala, secretary for health and human services, to overturn
former President Bush's moratorium on federal financing of
research involving fetal tissues from induced abortions.
Lawmakers have little doubt that the next president, whether it
is Mr. Gore or Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, will continue the
pattern of past presidents.
"I do not believe that the romance with the executive order is
restricted to the Clinton White House," said Representative
George W.
Gekas, Republican of Pennsylvania, who has held hearings on the
issue. "Every president has used them.
Some, though, have used more restraint than others."
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
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