Washington in brief

Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 12, 2002

GAO investigates delay of Fla. audit sought by Gov. Bush

WASHINGTON -- The General Accounting Office has expanded its investigation of Health and Human Services Inspector General Janet Rehnquist, the daughter of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, beyond its initial focus on widespread personnel changes in her office.

According to congressional investigators, the GAO is now also looking into allegations involving the delay in an audit of a Florida pension fund that could have benefited Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, the unauthorized possession of a gun by Rehnquist and the shredding of documents after the GAO inquiry had begun.

The inquiry includes an almost six-month delay this year in beginning an audit of a Florida state government pension fund as Bush was facing a tough re-election battle. The audit, scheduled to begin in April, did not start until September, assuring that any potentially embarrassing results would not be known until well after the Nov. 5 election in which Bush eventually won a second term.

Ben St. John, a spokesman for Rehnquist, said that the delays were not linked to Florida politics and that the outcome of the audit would not have been known until after the election even if the audit had started in April.

But according to an internal e-mail that Rehnquist released, before the audit was delayed, OIG officials expected a draft report on the audit to be ready by Sept. 30, more than a month before the election.

Rehnquist confirmed Wednesday that the delay request came from Kathleen Shanahan, Bush's chief of staff. A spokeswoman for the governor said last month that Bush requested the delay because the pension agency was in the middle of a transition between its old and new directors.

Report: President to issue order on religious charities

President Bush will issue a sweeping executive order today directing federal agencies to let religious charities compete for social-service grants and contracts, bypassing Congress on a sensitive church-state issue, Knight Ridder Newspapers reported, quoting unnamed White House officials.

With his "faith-based" initiative stalled in the Senate, Bush will push his agenda forward with the stroke of a pen at a conference of religious charities in Philadelphia. Knight Ridder reported, quoting the unnamed administration officials, that the order would help clear the way for government assistance to religious organizations that serve the poor.

The order is intended to make sure that faith-based groups can retain their religious identities, including the right to hire workers based on religion, while accepting federal tax dollars. But it will prohibit the use of federal tax money for worship services, religious instruction or other "inherently religious" activity.

Independent panel to study future of Postal Service

President Bush on Wednesday created an independent commission to examine the U.S. Postal Service's operations and recommend by July 31 what could be the first major reforms of the agency since the 1970s.

Bush's authorization of the panel came a day after the Postal Service announced it had lost $676-million in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. That was about half of the budgeted loss of $1.35-billion.

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