Army Official Ousted After Criticisms

The assistant secretary of the Army, former Mississippi Rep. Mike Parker, was fired Wednesday after he criticized the Bush administration’s proposed spending cuts for Army Corps of Engineers’ water projects, members of Congress said.

The Defense Department issued a brief statement saying Parker had resigned.

“The department appreciates Mr. Parker’s contributions and wishes him the best in his future endeavors,” it said. The statement made no mention of the reason for Parker’s departure.

The White House had no immediate comment.

“Apparently he was asked to resign,” said Rep. Roger F. Wicker (R-Miss.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee’s energy and water development subcommittee that oversees the Corps’ budget.

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, also said Parker had been fired.

In his budget submission last month, Bush proposed cutting the Corps of Engineers’ budget by 10% to $4.175 billion, excluding federal retirees’ pensions and benefits. The Corps had requested more than $6 billion.

At a hearing before the Senate Budget Committee last week, Parker said the cuts would require the Corps to cancel $190 million in already-contracted projects providing 4,500 jobs.

“After being in the administration and dealing with them, I still don’t have warm and fuzzy feelings for them,” he testified before the committee. “I’m hoping that OMB (the White House Office of Management and Budget) understands we’re at the beginning of the process. If the Corps is limited in what it does for the American people, there will be a negative impact.”

Conrad said he will ask administration officials whether Parker was dismissed because of his testimony.

“If the administration is firing him for that, I believe that is a serious mistake on their part and is going to have an adverse effect on relations with the Congress,” he said. “You cannot fire people who come up and answer questions honestly.”

Army Secretary Thomas E. White was directed over the weekend to seek Parker’s dismissal, said a congressional official.

Parker, 52, was a Mississippi congressman from 1989 to 1998, when he resigned to make an unsuccessful run for governor.