-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- Capitol Hill Blue The frightening world of government by executive order Tuesday, January 11, 2000 BY JILL LABBE In a story last week about the unexpected changes in Russia's political structure, The New York Times used the word ``ukazes'' without any accompanying explanation. The Times' inflated opinion of the educational level of its readers being what it is, apparently no further explanation was warranted. I readily confess my ignorance, plus that of many of my colleagues, who are some of the most well-read people I know. A quick trip to the dictionary revealed that a ukase (although the Times spelled it with a ``z'') is an imperial proclamation or order having the force of law. It's the Russian equivalent of a U.S. presidential executive order. And though you'd never know it by looking at the number of orders issued by almost every American president since Abraham Lincoln (Rutherford Hayes and James Garfield resisted the urge), in this country it is a form of unconstitutional lawmaking that usurps legislative power. Congress historically has been none too bothered by this supplanting of its authority. What kind of issues are so pressing that a president feels compelled to make law via executive order - or, worse yet, through classified presidential directives that even members of Congress are denied access to - rather than go through the constitutionally mandated process of Congressional approval? Everything from controlling ``invasive species'' of plants and animals to the declassification of POW/MIA records to directing federal agencies to implement various U.N. human rights treaties even though they haven't been ratified by Congress. The current Democratic occupant of the White House has managed to issue 311 of these hummers as of Dec. 21, but he is by no means the prime abuser. Republican presidents Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan all topped Clinton's mark - but Bill has another year to play, so the jury's still out. Clinton's 311 are small fish compared to Harry Truman's 905, but that pales when stacked up next to the winner and still champion, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who issued a whopping 3,723 executive orders. Lincoln issued the first such presidential directive to be classified as an executive order, according to attorneys William Olson and Alan Woll, who authored a policy analysis last fall on EOs for the Cato Institute. That order, issued on Oct. 20, 1862, established federal courts in parts of Louisiana that were being held by federal troops. What started basically as interoffice memos between Lincoln and his executive branch staff on how to run a government beset by civil war while Congress was not in session have morphed into a second legislative branch of government. The trouble with executive orders is that not all of them rely on clearly delineated constitutional or statutory authority. Ambiguity being the best friend of power, presidents have used the wide divergence of opinion about the scope, application and legal authority of presidential directives to their advantage. But some members of the 106th Congress have had enough of this imperial presidency. Rep. Jack Metcalf of Washington has been joined by 83 bipartisan co-sponsors, including nine Texas congressmen, to introduce House Concurrent Resolution 30. The legislation will take the teeth out of any executive order that infringes on congressional powers and duties or requires the expenditure of federal funds not specifically appropriated by Congress for the purpose of the order. They would be little more than presidential wish lists and have no force or effect unless Congress enacted them as law. What triggered this long-overdue interest? E.O. 13061: Federal Support of Community Efforts along American Heritage Rivers. In it, Clinton promised federal money to ``protect'' first 10, and later 14, rivers nominated by local governments and environmental groups under the American Heritage Rivers Initiative - itself created by executive order. No one is saying that protecting rivers isn't a good thing. But issuing federal regulations for what should be local land use policies and then promising federal funds that would have to be ``reappropriated'' from some place else - all without congressional authority - was a move that troubled even members of the president's own party. Presidential adviser Paul Begala, no doubt totally unaware that his words would send a shiver down the spines of Americans who value the balance of power established in the Constitution, said this at one of Clinton's executive order signing parties: ``Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kinda cool.'' Not kinda cool. Downright chilling. (Jill ``J.R.'' Labbe is senior editorial writer and columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.) © 2000 Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Distribued by N.Y. 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