Word: watt
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...first glance, Interior Secretary James G. Watt's sweeping federal wilderness proposal seemed an offer no conservationist could refuse. Its chief feature: closing up U.S. wilderness lands to oil and gas drilling, and even mineral mining, until the year 2000. Declared Watt: "We think these lands are special lands and should be preserved in their natural state...
...those policies were not enough for Mr. Watt to hang his hat on, he has, of late, taken to tangling with Congress. His adamant refusal to turn over a number of subpoenaed documents to the House Energy and Commerce Committee has resulted in that committee citing him for contempt of Congress. Watt has stonewalled the committee by declaring that the documents--which concern Canadian energy and investment policies and Administration responses to those policies--are sensitive, he claims that he can retain them under the powers of executive privilege. Barring the negotiation of solution between the Administration and the committee...
Exactly what could be so sensitive in those documents is unclear. The issue seems more one of who's got the power than of who's got the documents. In balking the committee. Watt and the Administration are attempting to clip the Congressional prerogative of examining all documents necessary for the purpose of legislation. It is, in effect, another of this imperial Administration's efforts to show that it can rule without the consent of Congress...
...another imbroglio, Mr. Watt has proven that House committee's assessment of him accurate: he does have contempt for Congress. The secretary, who last December used some $9000 of government funds to hold parties in mansion owned by the government, has made it abundantly clear that he does not care at all if the General Accounting Office (GAO) finds he misused the funds. Dismissing the suggestion that he reimburse the government, Watt says tersely it is the GAO that "is in error." Indeed, the Secretary does not even deign to appear at the Congressional hearing into the matter, sending instead...
These antics have gone on for too long. The Administration's belief that it is the only branch of government with substantive power is both misguided and pernicious. In particular, we feel it imperative that Secretary Watt learn he is not the only playmaker on the court. Perhaps a short course in history and constitutional law would inform attorney Watt he is not entitled to use government money at his own whim, nor to adjudicate whether or not his use of the funds is legal, nor to rewrite the powers of Congress. Failing a hasty assimilation of that knowledge...