Bush Choices Signal Change From Reagan

With his sudden burst of selections for six high-level positions this week, President-elect George Bush has taken a large step toward completing the outlines of the type of Administration he hopes to lead.

In almost every way, the emerging picture points toward the likelihood of significant though generally moderate changes from the policies and operating style of the Reagan Administration. And the changes implied by Bush’s selections suggest that the new Administration’s tenure could be less stormy, less marked by dramatic confrontations than Reagan’s has been.

In some areas--most notably the environment--Bush’s appointments herald a sharp departure from Reagan Administration ideology and a return to the broad consensus that had governed such policy for two decades before Reagan. In other areas, particularly housing, where Reagan took little action, Bush has chosen dynamic individuals who are determined to force their ideas into the national policy debate.

And in still other parts of the government, such as the Pentagon--even though Bush appears likely to pursue goals that parallel Reagan’s--the President-elect’s choices project a far different approach and style than Reagan’s did. It is a style that promises to emphasize negotiation and deal-making rather than assertions of presidential power.

Reagan appointees, aware of his extraordinary popularity, had a tendency “to run over” Congress and other opponents and “threaten them by going to the people” directly, noted one former senior official who has worked with both men. “Bush can’t do that in the same way” and has begun to shape his Administration with that fact in mind, the source noted.

There are, of course, many similarities between the new Administration being formed and the old one it will replace. Many of Bush’s key selections to fill posts served Reagan. And, although some of those selected may be more moderate than their predecessors in the means they employ, the ends in most cases are broadly similar.

One area in which there already appears to be a notable swing away from the hard-line approach of the Reagan years is foreign affairs.

Sidesteps Question

During Thursday’s press conference, Bush was asked repeatedly about reports that terrorist sabotage had caused the crash of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland on Wednesday. When pressed to repeat Reagan’s vow of “swift and effective retribution” for terrorism, Bush repeatedly sidestepped.

Many foreign policy experts believe that Reagan’s repeated vows of retaliation--even though his Administration generally found it difficult to strike back--undermined U.S. anti-terrorism policy.

Bush also carefully avoided repeating the suggestion Reagan made Wednesday in a television interview that the United States might use military force to destroy a suspected Libyan chemical weapons facility, saying only that the subject would be discussed at an international conference next month in Paris.

But, while Bush’s Administration may be marked by lowered rhetoric and lessened tensions between the White House and Congress, statements so far by him and those he has chosen for top jobs suggest that a new source of tension may quickly develop as the activist instincts of many of the choices begin to clash with the severe budget crisis that Bush will inherit when he takes office.

Thursday’s press conference with the five most recent selections provided two quick examples of that potential tension. Samuel K. Skinner, Bush’s choice to serve as secretary of transportation, for example, sketched an expansive agenda for his agency that includes upgrading federal aviation systems “to meet the demands of an unprecedented period of rapid development,” improvement of Coast Guard drug interdiction efforts and new approaches to “meeting our needs for massive infrastructure improvement.”

A few minutes later, however, when a reporter asked if Bush is prepared to release money that has been piling up unspent in federal trust funds for highway and airport improvement, the President-elect balked.

Deficit Prime Priority

“I have spelled out (that) a prime priority of my Administration must be . . . getting this--or keeping this--budget deficit on a downward path,” he said. Spending the trust fund money would make the deficit worse, and “I can’t promise to do that at all,” he added.

Similarly, Bush said that he had discussed acid rain with William K. Reilly, his choice to head the Environmental Protection Agency, and is committed to lessening the problem “provided we can balance the budget in an appropriate period of time.”

“We have to recognize,” he said, “that there are not all the monies available that I would like to see for all the good things that need to be done by the federal government.”

Aides say that Bush will try early on in his tenure to find a few initiatives that he and his new appointees can emphasize that will not threaten the budget.

In the area of environmental protection, for example, some aides are pushing for an international conference on global warming--the so-called “greenhouse effect”--that would highlight both Bush’s vow to pursue environmental protection and his experience in foreign affairs.