Congress, White House in struggle for power
By James Kunnnenn
Knight Ridder Newspapers
WASHINGTON (KRT) — The
Bush White House provoked a
major lawsuit and is angering
even its political allies in a cam
paign to increase its control over
federal spending and public in
formation.
At stake are public access to
White House deliberations, the fate
of federal projects in communities
across America, and the ever-shift
ing balance of power between Con
gress and the presidency.
Last week, the General Ac
counting Office, the investigative
arm of Congress, sued Vice Presi
dent Dick Cheney to learn who
participated in meetings he
chaired while formulating the ad
ministration’s energy policy.
The suit was the latest move in
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a senes of clashes that illustrate
the administration’s determina
tion to reverse what it believes is
a decades-long erosion of presi
dential authority.
Congress is fighting back on
other fronts as well.
Some influential lawmakers,
including senior Republicans, are
bristling at efforts by the White
House Office of Management and
Budget to limit spending on proj
ects in their home districts. And
when the White House rejected a
request by Rep. Dan Burton, R
Ind., for Justice Department doc
uments on organized crime dat
ing to 1967, Burton threatened to
hold President Bush in contempt
of Congress.
Power struggles between Con
gress and the White House date to
the nation’s founders. But the
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current quarrels are distinguished
by the administration’s unyield
ing stance and the bipartisan
furor it has aroused.
They are especially noteworthy
given a president who promised
an administration characterized
by openness and affability.
“It’s hard to be an open pop
ulist when you’re trying to pro
tect presidential power,” said
Marshall Wittmann, a Republican
strategist and fellow at the Hud
son Institute, a conservative poli
cy research center.
But for Cheney and Bush, forti
fying the presidency is as much a
policy goal as cutting taxes and
building up the nation’s defenses.
“One of the things that I feel an
obligation on'rand I know the pres
ident does, too ... is to pass on our
offices in better shape than we
found them,” Cheney said recently
on ABC’s “This Week.” “We are
weaker today as an institution be
cause of the unwise compromises
that have been made over the last
30 or 35 years.”
That view has brought the GAO
lawsuit and the thundering con
tempt-of-Congress threat from
Burton, the chairman of the
House Government Reform Com
mittee.
It has also led to a confronta
tion over what many lawmakers
maintain is their fundamental
right under the Constitution —
the power to decide how to spend
taxpayers’ money.
The White House and its budg
et office are out to,limit Congress’
practice of adding to spending
legislation special projects for the
folks back home.
Upon delivering the budget to
Congress earlier this month,
White House Budget Director
Mitchell Daniels declared that
such spending “has gotten out of
hand.” The administration took a
swipe at Congress in the budget
document, singling out an
$80,000 grant to a Wisconsin
county sheriff’s department for
the purchase of an Ice Angel
Windsled, used for winter res
cues on frozen Lake Superior.
It was no coincidence that the
Republican Bush administration
zeroed in on a project champi
oned by the ranking Democrat on
the Appropriations Committee,
Wisconsin’s David Obey. Obey
was furious.
‘This could have huge,
huge policy implications.
Ido believe that Cheney
and the White House are
pursuing a principled issue
on the energy task force....
This is beyond Enron and
the work of the Cheney task
force. This is an issue about
executive power.”
Gary Bass
executive director, 0MB Watch
But Daniels had angered Repub
licans, too. To make up for a short
fall in a federal education program,
he wanted to eliminate hundreds
of health and education projects
that members inserted into spend
ing legislation last year.
Appropriations Committee
Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla.,
fumed.
“All wisdom on the allocation of
federal grant funding does not re
side in the executive branch,” he
wrote Daniels on Feb. 6. “Unless
the Constitution is amended, Con
gress will continue to exercise its
discretion over federal funds and
will earmark those funds for pur
poses we deem appropriate.”
National moods, scandals and
the personalities of the individu
als occupying the White House
have dictated the power swings
from White House to Congress
over the years. Congress was at its
peak of power in the post-Water
gate period.
“As time has passed, it has
swung back to the executive,”
said Gary Bass, executive director
of OMB Watch, a research group
that advocates openness in gov
ernment. “And this administra
tion has put much greater stock
in protecting executive turf.”
In the end, the Bush White
House may not win ail these con
frontations. But by drawing a line
across Pennsylvania Avenue and
daring Congress to cross it, Bush
and Cheney have done more to
assert presidential power than
previous administrations.
But the White House faces sig
nificant political risks. The pub
lic may be more likely to believe
that a president is hiding some
thing rather than protecting a
constitutional principle.
Among the energy industry ex
ecutives who advised Cheney last
year was Kenneth Lay, then En
ron Corp. chairman, and a major
fund-raiser for Bush’s presiden
tial campaign. By fighting the
GAO, the White House gives fuel
to critics who say that Cheney, a
former energy company executive
himself, was drafting a policy to
benefit the administration’s in
dustry friends.
Others say that Enron and ener
gy policy aside, a successful
White House stand could dramat
ically alter how Congress per
forms its job as a check on the ex
ecutive branch.
“This could have huge, huge
policy implications,” said Bass of
OMB Watch. “I do believe that
Cheney and the White House are
pursuing a principled issue on
the energy task force. ...This is
beyond Enron and the work of
the Cheney task force. This is an
issue about executive power.”
© 2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
APASU
continued from page 3
Big Brother Jeff Boyce is Fil
ipino American. He said he grew
up in a “white world” and didn’t
learn to respect his culture until
last summer when he traveled to
Hawaii and became close to the
families of his Hawaiian friends.
He hopes the program will help
children be proud of their cultures
at a younger age.
“I want them to be aware of their
culture so they can respect it and
love it for their whole lives,” he said.
At Saturday’s event, the children
were initially shy and clung to their
mothers’ legs. But soon they were
attempting to dance to Hukilau
with Boyce, Miller and the other
big brothers and sisters.
Jane Williams and her 4-year-old
Chinese daughter, Maya, attend the
Big Brother/Big Sister events and are
part of other support groups such as
Families with Children from China
and a moms and girls group for girls
who’ve been adopted.
“(My husband) and I were inter
ested in any opportunity to expose
Maya to her culture and to other
kids who’ve been adopted,”
Williams said.
She hopes the contact will help
Maya deal with identity issues
when she’s older.
Williams and her husband
wanted to adopt a baby girl from
China because of the Chinese gov
ernment’s policy that a family can
only have one child. She knew
Chinese preferred to have boys,
and.there were a lot of little girls
in orphanages.
ed Maya when she was just over a
year old. Now Maya is four and
occasionally has questions about
her background.
“When she was about two-and
a-half, she started noticing preg
nant women’s tummies. At about
three, she said, ‘I came out of your
tummy, right?’ I thought, ‘Oh, I
wish I’d been prepared for that,”’
Williams said. “I think there are
different levels of understanding.
She knows about her birth mother
and that her birth mother couldn’t
take care of her.”
Miller doesn’t remember a seri
ous talk about her adoption with
her parents.
She said she doesn’t think of her
family as different from anyone
else’s, even though she has an Indi
an sister, a Korean brother and Cau
casian parents. She said she re
members reading books as a child
describing “white” and “black”
people, and she always pictured
the skin colors literally.
“I said to my mom, ‘I want to see
a white person.’ My mom said she
was considered ‘white’ and that
confused me,” she said.
Miller said her mom asked her
what color she wanted to be identi
fied as.
“I guess I’m beige,” she an
swered.
People often ask Miller where
she’s from. “I’ll say, ‘Lake Os
wego,”’ Miller said. “Then they’ll
ask, ‘Well, where are your parents
from?’ ‘Montana.’ ‘Well, your
grandparents, then?’ ‘Germany.’
Then they’d get really confused.”
She said Ariwicahs'havM fasoh
nation' frith* asking Asians' about'
their ethnicity.
“I don’t know why it matters so
much,” she said.
Since coming to the University,
Miller began reconnecting with her
Korean identity. Her high school
had only 20 Asian students and she
didn’t have many Asian friends,
she said. She said her parents were
somewhat baffled when she went
to the APASU open house and be
gan replacing her middle name
“Marie” with her Korean name, “Ji
Sun.” Although her adoption
agency, Holt International Chil
dren’s Services, gave her the name
for “identification purposes,” to
Miller, using her Korean name is “a
way of going back to the identity I
first had,” she said.
In APASU, she’s found a group of
Asian students she can relate to —
whether it’s just hanging out or
sharing similar instances of racism
and discrimination, she said. But
she still finds herself somewhat de
tached from her Korean identity,
she said.
“In this country I don’t have
much in common with students
from Korea — with the language,
culture and traditions.”
The Big Brother/Big Sister pro
gram is an outlet for younger ver
sions of Miller to deal with the
same kinds of identity issues she
has faced.
It’s also a place for the children to
learn about each other’s traditions
and cultures with older role models
in an “environment where they’re
not a minority,” Miller said.
. E-qlaiUepdtJer Diane Huber
afcHaneftiuber@dallyemersld.com.