Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 16, 1990 TAG: 9006160155
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Casting the 12th veto of his presidency two days after the Senate upheld the 11th, Bush said there was no compelling reason to modify the Hatch Act.
"The Hatch Act has upheld the integrity of the civil service by assuring that federal employees are hired and promoted based upon their qualifications and not their political loyalties," he said in a veto message to Congress.
Robert Tobias, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, representing federal employees in 16 agencies and departments, urged the Senate to override the veto.
Although the measure passed both chambers by more than the two-thirds majorities needed to sustain a veto, Republican leaders have said they expect to be able to switch enough votes in the Senate to sustain the veto.
Bush has yet to have a veto overridden. Just Wednesday, the Senate by a two-vote margin upheld his veto of a $2 billion Amtrak authorization bill.
The Hatch Act revision would affect 3 million federal employees and postal workers, who are now prohibited from participating in any form of political activity beyond voting.
Sent to Bush by a 334-87 House vote on Wednesday, the bill would allow government employees to work in political campaigns on their own time, hold office in a political party and attend political conventions.
However, the measure would leave intact prohibitions against running for partisan political office and soliciting money from the public.
Sponsors said the measure would extend some of the same freedoms now enjoyed by most Americans to federal and postal workers.
But Bush said he was opposed to any tinkering with the Hatch Act, passed in 1939 to prevent Depression-era government workers from being pressured to work for President Franklin D. Roosevelt's re-election effort.
Bush said the easing would "inevitably lead to repoliticizing" the government bureaucracy.
"It has been manifestly successful over the years in shielding civil servants and the programs they administer from political exploitation and abuse," Bush wrote.
The Senate passed the same bill last month by a vote of 67-30. That would be just enough for a veto override. But GOP Senate leaders have expressed confidence they can persuade one or two of their colleagues to change votes.
by CNB