Five Democratic senators called Thursday for cutting off the funds of the vice president`s Council on Competitiveness, charging that it is carrying out Republican political objectives and operating in unacceptable secrecy.
The group, led by John Glenn of Ohio, contended the council is weakening the impact of laws concerning the environment, public health and worker safety.
”I find it ironic that this administration publicly touts the Clean Air Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act as two of its greatest domestic policy triumphs. However, at the very same time, the Council on
Competitiveness is covertly meeting with special interest groups to weaken the rules implementing those laws,” Glenn said at a news conference with the other four.
The Council on Competitiveness, headed by Vice President Dan Quayle, reviews government agency regulations to ensure they don`t burden business unnecessarily. It can send an offending rule back for rewriting.
The council`s makeup changes according to the issues involved. It usually comprises Quayle, the White House chief of staff and counsel, the budget director, the director of the Council of Economic Advisers, and the secretaries of energy and commerce.
Environmentalists and congressional Democrats have accused the council of interfering with regulations so as to benefit business interests and of stonewalling any inquiries.
”Freedom of information requests are turned down. Decisions are made without any public record of who was involved or on what basis they were made. And congressional requests for council witnesses are denied,” said Sen. Max Baucus of Montana.
Glenn conceded that if the council`s appropriation could be blocked, ”we don`t really stop the operation” because most council employees actually are on the payroll of other administration offices.
Quayle, campaigning in Ohio, called the council ”the last line of resistance in protecting the consumers of America against an overzealous federal bureaucracy.”
He added: ”Apparently Sen. Glenn wants to be on the side of the federal bureaucrats.”
Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, chairman of the competitiveness subcomittee of the Small Business Committee, asserted that the council in its four years of existence has done nothing to enhance the competitiveness of American industry in the global economy and ignores the law with its shroud of secrecy.
Others senators joining the attack were Timothy Wirth of Colorado and Carl Levin of Michigan.
