The Administration

Today I joined with the Center for American Progress in releasing a report card that graded the Bush Administration's Iraq policy on four key areas:

*        Security and Stability: F
*        Governance and Democracy: C+
*        Economic Reconstruction: D-
*        Iraq's Impact on U.S. National Security: F

This report card is a sobering report.  Too often this Administration has dealt in slogans and glib assumptions.  This is an accurate assessment of where we are and what we must do to really make progress. Read more...

This was a very rational bill that was a compromise between homeowners’ associations and condominium associations that worry about the values of homes depreciating, and the rights of Americans to present their country’s flag. They can place reasonable limits on how and when to present the flag but they cannot stop you from presenting it.

It’s great to get a bill through the process and it takes a long time to get it through the bureaucracy. You just assume that people can fly the flag but then you learn that this isn’t the case and we felt in this case legislation was needed to solve the problem.

I was asked to make available a report issued today by an American Bar Association task force on presidential signing statements. I asked this bipartisan group of constitutional experts and former government officials to examine whether presidents can sign new laws, but then issue statements saying they do not intend to enforce all or part of them.

This group found that presidents of both parties have used this tactic with increasing aggressiveness in the last 25 years, in ways that thwart the will of Congress and undermine our delicate system of checks and balances. I was especially gratified that the task force, which includes several conservatives including former Oklahoma Congressman Mickey Edwards, all agreed that the president can’t pick or choose what parts of a law he likes. He must sign or veto it as a whole.

I urge you to look at the report, prepared by the American Bar Association Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine.

Yesterday, I sent a letter with Chairman Tom Davis to ask the President's Council on Environmental Quality to provide information about serious allegations that a political appointee had tampered with government scientists' and experts' work on global warming.

Last year, the New York Times reported that the council's chief of staff, Phillip Cooney, had altered scientific government reports to downplay the connection between emissions and global warming. The White House claimed last year that Mr. Cooney's edits were routine. Mr. Cooney had no background in science. Before joining the Bush Administration, he'd been an oil industry lobbyist.

Days after the Times story ran, Mr. Cooney resigned. And went to work for Exxon Mobil.

Yesterday's Government Reform Committee hearing on climate change science presented me with an opportunity to ask Chairman Tom Davis to join me in an effort to get to the bottom of the controversy. Our letter asked CEQ's current chairman James Connaughton to provide any internal documents related to climate change, and we expect them by August 11. Chairman Davis has agreed to schedule a hearing with the CEQ chairman after the August recess.

During his first address before our nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization, President Bush said the right words, but time and time again, he has failed to back up such words with action.

To truly make an impact, today's photo-up must include a follow-up. The visuals and script he presented must be the beginning of a strong production.

I am pleased that President Bush acknowledged that racism and discrimination still exist in America - a fact some in the Republican party continue to deny.

He discussed giving priority to eliminating racial disparities by providing quality education for all children, encouraging the growth of minority-owned businesses, increasing home ownership in the African American community, expanding access to healthcare, addressing the epidemic of HIV/AIDS and helping the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

However, mere words do not help children who attend low-performing schools. Catchy sound-bites don't help Hurricane Katrina survivors rebuild their lives. And his appearance at an NAACP convention doesn't make poverty disappear for millions of Americans.

The President put politics before the American people yesterday when he vetoed H.R. 810, a bill that would have expanded life-saving stem cell research.  How can he claim to value life, when he is depriving millions of Americans the promise of life-saving medical cures?

We have always been a nation of progress and advancement.  But the majority party's election year political pandering will reverse that rewarding course and deprive millions of ailing Americans the promise of life-saving cures.

We can’t let this slow response by the Bush administration become another Katrina.  There are thousands of Americans who desperately want out of Lebanon, but their government cannot seem to do what many European countries have already done - get their people out.

Today marks a full year that the Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity post within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been vacant.  The Bush Administration has left this position unfilled since its creation.

This failure reflects the larger inadequacies of the entire Department.  Half of the major Department of Homeland Security offices have critical staff vacancies.  Literally no one is home at DHS to protect our national security.

The reliability of computer networks is a constant need in our daily lives.  But DHS and President Bush have not made cybersecurity a priority in their homeland security strategy.  Filling the Assistant Secretary for Cybersecurity position would only be the beginning (not the end) of protecting our nation’s cyber infrastructure.  On the one year anniversary of the creation of this position, I am disappointed, but unfortunately not surprised, that DHS has yet to begin such a critical task.

Last month, Representative Mike Castle (R-DE) and I formally requested a meeting with President Bush to discuss our Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (H.R. 810). This bill would expand current federal embryonic stem cell research policy and create an ethical framework for conducting this research, which could hold the cure to such diseases as Alzheimer's and diabetes. Unfortunately the President sent us a letter denying our request yesterday.

And while it's regrettable that President Bush will not grant us the common courtesy of a meeting, it's just insulting that he sent his head political advisor to my hometown with a veto threat. Earlier this week, Karl Rove met with the Denver Post editorial board and announced that President Bush will veto H.R. 810 if it passes th U.S. Senate. This research is far too important to let Rove turn into a wedge issue like flag burning or gay marriage.

I would still welcome the chance to sit down with the President and talk to him about the mistake of making his first veto a bill which would help 100 million Americans and their families. This issue should be above politics and certainly above Karl Rove's cynical electoral strategy.

By Christian E. Weller, senior economist; and John S. Irons, director of Budget and Tax Policy, Center for American Progress

President Bush is woefully out of touch with economic realities. “He fails to acknowledge that the economic recovery of the past few years has left millions of American middle-class families behind,