King Clinton?
The Reign of the Executive Order
Septermber 3, 1998
How far should a President's power go, and has Bill Clinton's gone too
far? It's a question arising from persistent charges that Clinton is using
his executive powers to make a federal power grab and do an end-run
around Congress. By one count, 14 types of executive actions lie within
a President's arsenal. CBN News White House correspondent Melissa
Charbonneau examines how Clinton and other Presidents have used a
powerful privilege to enact sweeping public policy decisions.
Melissa Charbonneau, reporter
With less than two years to leave a presidential legacy, Bill Clinton
faces a final term plagued by legal scandal and blocked by an
opposition Congress. To push through his policy priorities, analysts say
Clinton has resorted to a strategy of issuing executive orders,
proclamations, and decrees.
But his zeal to bypass Congress and govern by fiat has raised the
specter of an imperial presidency. After the President ordered military
strikes in retaliation for African embassy bombings, some critics warned
that Clinton had gone too far.
"He didn't even consult with Congress," says Larry Klayman of Judicial
Watch. "Clearly, what he's done is declare war. The War Powers Act
applies, and Congress needs to be brought into that equation. The
President cannot act alone."
Others justify the action under Clinton's authority as
Commander-in-Chief, but the mere dispute highlights the political
stakes.
"It's a power game," says Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution.
"It's a pushing and shoving match."
Hess says Clinton is doing what all Presidents do: using his powers to
fix problems that Congress won't.
"That's historic," he says. "That's not unique to this President. Presidents
push as far as they can till somebody on the other end, whether
Congress or the courts, says, 'Whoa, you're up against us,' and then a
decision is made."
So far, Congress hasn't pushed back, but it is testing the waters. One
Senate Committe is cataloguing Clinton directives ranging from gays in
the military to global warming treaties to requirements for warning labels
on fruit juice. According to the senate report, Clinton has issued fewer
formal orders than Nixon, Ford, Carter, or Reagan, but the number of
federal regulations under Clinton's administration exceeds Ronald
Reagan's by 15,000 pages a year.
"They didn't consult with us," says Michael Bird of the National
Conference on State Legislatures. "They didn't give us a chance to
review it. The first time we saw it was after it was signed."
Clinton's executive order on "federalism" provoked a backlash by state
and local government and eventually a White House suspension of the
order. Written in secret, Clinton's decree revoked a Reagan order
affirming state's rights and gave federal bureaucrats more power to
meddle in state affairs.
"This shows an inclination to display the federal government as the
supreme policy-maker within the United States, and to diminish the
authority vested in the Constitution for state and local governments,"
says Bird.
In another controversial order, Clinton banned workplace
discrimination against federal employees because of sexual orientation.
Critics say Congress would never have passed such a bill, which
guarantees preferential treatment for gays in hiring and firing.
Constitutional attorney Ann Coulter writes in her book of a Clinton
decree from 1996. With the stroke of a pen, the President confiscated
two million acres of land in Utah, making it off limits to mining, without
consulting the state's elected officials.
"I see it as part of a pattern of complete lawlessness," says Coulter.
"The idea of describing this undifferentiated land mass as a monument.
It was really just overriding a power of Congress to declare it as a
national wilderness, which they weren't about to do, because it's
remote, barren, and unattractive."
The President has issued a barrage of executive actions that overturn a
funding ban for family planning groups that perform abortions, assign
U.S. troops to serve under foreign commanders, ban semiautomatic
foreign rifles, extend family leave for federal employees, extend a
moratorium on oil drilling off U.S. coastlines, and require federal
agencies to decide with cigarette brands are popular among teenagers.
Clinton isn't the first to rely on the power of his office. Abraham Lincoln
used a proclamation to free the slaves. Franklin Delano Roosevelt used
it to send Japanese Americans to detention camps. And Harry Truman
used his power to order federal control of the steel mills during labor
disputes. Advisors say Clinton is using the same authority to make
progress on popular reforms.
Paul Begala once said, "This President has a very strong sense of the
powers of the presidency and is willing to use them all."
"I really don't think this President is out of line if we add up the number
of ones," says Hess. "He does seem to call more Rose Garden
ceremonies to announce them."
And the political focus will remain on this lame duck President to see if
his leadership strategy is anything more than a public relations ploy.
Federal power grab, or presidential perogative ... However you see it,
the use of executive orders is bound to grow with government unless
the people speak out or Congress steps in to roll back the powers of
the presidency. |
