According to an Oct. 30 Associated Press report, the administration often has failed to meet Homeland Security deadlines. Why? The official spin at the time was that there are too many deadlines.
Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke told the AP that the department goes to great lengths to work with Congress. But, he said, "there is an extraordinarily high number of reporting requirements." The department has to submit 256 reports to Congress every year, Knocke said.
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How do you get around arduous paperwork? Change the rules.
With control of the presidency and both houses of Congress, Bush could have changed the FISA rules in 2001, when Congress overwhelming supported the USA Patriot Act.
Similarly, rules regarding the number of reports Homeland Security has to file could have been dealt with when the department was created, again with overwhelming Congressional support, in 2002.
But neither of those things happened. Circumventing the rules now, after the fact, isn't the answer.
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This item first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.
Article comments
1 - Nancy
I think the reason Bush hasn't followed the rules - any rules - is that he feels as president he is above the law, & by the GOP being in control of both houses & the WH, he is beyond the reach of the law. Together with his natural arrogance & almost complete lack of sense of reality, I suspect he's headed (at the behest of Cheney & Co.) towards some sort of power grab, possibly even thinking of trying to suspend elections, etc. using the excuse of 'being at war', which he seems to think means he has no limitations whatsoever. Obviously he has no concept of the parameters of the constitution, bill of rights, or any other part of US government, and his flunkies like Gonzalez aren't about to enlighten him. Let's put it this way: I wouldn't be surprised if that was a future move by Dubya. He's getting more & more blatant in pushing 'way over the line.