To: Homestead List <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Homestead] Three dozen czars...who's the boss?
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:30:07 -0400
Republicans and some Democrats are complaining that there are too many
so-called czars in the Obama administration, and now the Senate Health
committee even is proposing a health care czar to oversee the overhaul
of the system.
By some accounts, Obama has nearly three dozen czars in his
administration, managing everything from closing the Guantanamo Bay
detention facility to ending the genocide in Darfur.
"The accumulation of power by White House staff can threaten the
Constitutional system of checks and balances," Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.
Va., wrote in a letter to Obama.
Rep. Jack Kington, R-Ga., promised legislation to address what he's call
a "parallel government" that he says diminishes the Senate advice and
consent role.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, says she doesn't see a constitutional issue
but she expressed concern that the president may be breaking his promise
of transparency.
"By creating these czars that are insulated from accountability, whose
work is not transparent, he's moving in exactly the opposite direction,"
she said.
Since some of the positions don't require confirmation hearings, Collins
said, Congress loses some of its oversight ability. But a third of the
czar positions do require Senate confirmation.
And Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution says few of the remaining
czars would ignore a congressional invitation to testify.
"I don't see this in the slightest as a constitutional issue but as I do
see it as a continuation as wonderful tensions that are built into the
Constitution between the executive and the legislature," he said.
Hess described the opposition to the czars as political concerns of
Republicans worried that a powerful president with a congressional
majority will further erode their minority status.
But Collins argues there are also issues of accountability.
"Who's in charge of health care?" she asked. "Is it the secretary of
Health and Human Services? Or is the White House czar? Who is in charge
of environmental and energy issues?