GOP Questions Delay in Transition Funds

Charging that the White House is deliberately putting obstacles in George W. Bush’s path, Republican lawmakers grilled administration officials Monday on the decision not to release federal transition funds or office space to the Texas governor while the outcome of the presidential election is being challenged in the courts.

“What worries me is, are they just trying to make life tough for their successor?” said Rep. Stephen Horn (R-Long Beach), chairman of the House Government Reform subcommittee on government management, information and technology. “Time is running out for the next administration.”

Nearly a month after the election, the General Services Administration has yet to release the money intended for the next president’s transition expenses. Last week, the Bush team opened privately funded transition offices in the Washington suburb of McLean, Va. Dick Cheney, Bush’s vice presidential running mate, has been placed in charge of the operation and has complained that the delay could seriously affect a smooth turnover of power.

Gore, also planning a transition to the White House, met several times in the vice president’s residence with transition advisors. But he has not asked for access to the federal funds while the election remains before the courts.

GSA Administrator David Barram, who controls access to the $5.3 million allocated for the transition by Congress, told the subcommittee that the law prevents him from dispensing the money while the matter is being litigated.

The White House vigorously denied that it was being anything but completely cooperative in the extraordinary situation in which two candidates claim a right to the next presidency. White House spokesman Jake Siewert said the administration is doing all it can to speed the transition process for both Republican Bush and Democrat Gore, one of whom needs an executive team in place when he is inaugurated Jan. 20.

On Friday, administration officials agreed to authorize the FBI to perform background checks on potential nominees from both the Bush and Gore camps. Last week, the White House had directed the CIA to provide Bush with regular national security briefings. As vice president, Gore is already privy to such information.

“We’ve said it makes sense for both teams to begin transition planning,” Siewert said, “and given the law where Congress clearly intended not to hand over the offices and taxpayer money until there’s a victor, it makes sense for them to go forward privately.

“It’s our job to help whoever will win to begin the process. There’s no secret about who we back in this election, but, apart from our own personal feelings, we need to be fair and balanced as we go forward on this. It’s just a matter of professionalism more than anything else.”

Whether the administration is acting professionally was precisely the issue for Horn and other Republicans at the hearing, who relentlessly questioned Barram and other officials about the Presidential Transition Act of 1963. The act was amended in 1988 to give the GSA, an obscure government agency that effectively acts as an office administrator for the executive branch, the authority to “ascertain the apparent winner” of an election before releasing transition funds.

The wording was designed to allow transitions to go forward even before the electoral college meets in mid-December to anoint the president-elect.

But Barram has said that the language prevents him from freeing up the 90,000 square feet of office space and the funding allocated by Congress for the president-elect until the legal fight is over and one candidate concedes.

The Justice Department has seconded Barram’s decision.

“In this extremely close election . . . it is not apparent to me who the winner is,” Barram told the subcommittee, which oversees the GSA. “That is why I have not ascertained a president-elect.”

Barram said his agency is ready to move when a winner is declared. He said he has also asked Congress to extend, from 30 to 60 days, the period during which transition funds can be provided after a new president takes office.

Sally Katzen, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, said President Clinton is “determined that this would be a constructive, helpful, supportive transition and any suggestion that this administration is trying to make it harder for the new guy is just unfounded.” Several of the subcommittee’s Democratic members also defended the administration’s position.

That did not allay the Republican lawmakers’ concerns.

“I’m just trying to find a way that we can start the ball rolling for whoever wins,” Rep. Doug Ose (R-Sacramento) said. “I would suggest that the word ‘apparent’ offers the opportunity for the candidates to have access to this space. Somehow the business of the country has to be addressed. If I have to go out there and draw a line down the middle of the room and put one team on each side, I will. This has to move.”