MSNBC - March 6, 2002
Image: Mike Parker
Lawmakers said Mike Parker was given 30 minutes to decide whether to quit or be dismissed.
 
Bush fires Army engineers official
 
Democrat-turned-Republican
criticized cuts in water projects
 

ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
WASHINGTON, March 6 —  President Bush fired Assistant Army Secretary Mike Parker on Wednesday after he criticized proposed spending cuts on Army Corps of Engineers water projects that he oversaw. Parker, a former House member who switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party, became Bush’s first high-level political appointee to be dismissed.
‘After being in the administration and dealing with them, I still don’t have warm and fuzzy feelings for them.’
— MIKE PARKER
in congressional testimony		        THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT issued a brief statement saying Parker had resigned, but lobbyists and lawmakers in both parties said he did so only after he was given an ultimatum Wednesday to resign or be fired.
       “The department appreciates Mr. Parker’s contributions and wishes him the best in his future endeavors,” the Defense Department said in a statement that did not mention why Parker was leaving.
       “Apparently he was asked to resign,” said Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development, which oversees the Corps’ budget. “The administration has taken a step backwards in its efforts” to mend relations with the subcommittee, Wicker said.
       Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, also said Parker had been dismissed.
       
CRITIC OF OWN ADMINISTRATION
       Parker, 52, the civilian administrator for civil projects for the Corps, represented Mississippi in the House for five terms, switching parties in 1995. He lost a tight race for governor in 1999.
       In his budget submission last month, Bush proposed cutting the Corps of Engineers’ budget by 10 percent, to $4.175 billion, excluding federal retirees’ pensions and benefits. The Corps had requested more than $6 billion.
       At a hearing before the Senate Budget Committee last week, Parker said the cuts would require the Corps to cancel $190 million in already contracted projects providing 4,500 jobs.


       “After being in the administration and dealing with them, I still don’t have warm and fuzzy feelings for them,” he testified before the committee. “I’m hoping that OMB [the White House Office of Management and Budget] understands we’re at the beginning of the process. If the Corps is limited in what it does for the American people, there will be a negative impact.”
       Conrad said he intended to ask administration officials whether Parker was dismissed because of his testimony.
       “If the administration is firing him for that, I believe that is a serious mistake on their part and is going to have an adverse effect on relations with the Congress,” he said. “You cannot fire people who come up and answer questions honestly.”
       The White House said it would have no comment on Parker beyond what the Defense Department said. However, an administration official speaking on condition of anonymity said that after his testimony before congressional panels, it was felt that Parker was not on the president’s team.
       Over the past two years, Corps officials have been questioned at several hearings on accusations that the agency rigged cost-benefit analyses to justify expanding locks on the Mississippi and Illinois rivers sought by powerful agribusiness interests.
       Howard Marlowe, a lawyer and lobbyist on waterway issues, said Parker was given a choice about noon Wednesday of tendering his resignation or being fired and was told he had 30 minutes to decide. He then resigned, Marlowe and congressional officials said.
‘You cannot fire people who come up and answer questions honestly.’
— SEN. KENT CONRAD
Budget Committee chairman		        
BUSH ALLIES DISAPPOINTED
       Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that has jurisdiction over how the Corps spends its budgeted money, said he was surprised and disappointed by Parker’s resignation.
       “I am quite concerned that this announcement is the result of pressure applied by lower-level administration officials and regret the events of recent days have resulted in this action,” Callahan said.
       Industry groups who have sided with the administration on environmental issues criticized Parker’s departure.
       “That’s nothing new for people in his position — being in hot water,” said Harry N. Cook, president of the National Waterways Conference in Washington. “The civil works budget has not for many years enjoyed high priority within the administration.”
       However, environmental groups who have been among the most fervent critics of Bush said they were glad to see Parker go.
       “There are clearly strong advocates within the Bush administration for reforming the Army Corps, and Mike Parker was not one of them,” said Tim Searchinger, senior attorney for the activist group Environmental Defense.
       
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