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News & Analysis | REG•WATCH Blog | Press Room
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Yet Another Reason to Distrust Reorg Power
For another case example proving the point that government reorganization is not merely a technocratic exercise but is, instead, fraught with potential consequences for all of us, check out today's Progress Report:
NATIONAL SECURITY -- ADMINISTRATION WEAKENS STATE DEPARTMENT'S ARMS CONTROL CAPABILITIES: When Congress took its summer recess in July, the Bush administration tried to "quietly eliminate" most of the State Department's arms control offices and merge them with the nonproliferation units. Congress disagreed with the move, temporarily putting a hold in August on the reorganization. Despite this block, the State Department has once again begun quietly reorganizing its arms control and nonproliferation bureaus, which would "effectively complete an eight-year, Republican-driven process of dismantling the State Departments once sizable infrastructure dedicated to [nonproliferation]." This shift away from arms control comes at the same time that Harvard professor Graham Allison and other members of the national security community agree that "if policy makers in Washington keep doing what they are currently doing about the [proliferation] threat, a nuclear terrorist attack on America is likely to occur in the next decade."
As we have seen already with FEMA, giving the Bush administration the power to re-make government in its own image can prove dangerous for us all. We need Congress to continue to exercise oversight over these important questions of government function and organization, so that the people's representatives will make sure that we are doing what it takes to keep America safe.
Posted by Robert Shull
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