Dem Senator Byrd: Obama In A Power Grab

Dem Senator Byrd: Obama In A Power Grab; The Huffington Post; Stuart Whatley; February 25, 2009.

Senator Robert Byrd, the senior senator from West Virginia and the longest-serving member of the Senate, issued a press release Wednesday warning against President Obama's White House "czar" posts. In a letter to the President, Byrd expressed specific concern about the White House offices overseeing urban affairs, health care reform, and energy and climate change. The offices will be led by people not confirmed by the Senate, who will yet form and influence major policies. Byrd worries that such policies will not be subject to the required Constitutional power checks. Here is the full press release:

Washington, DC - Senator Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., the Constitutional conscience of the Senate, has written to President Barack Obama expressing his concerns over the increasing appointments of White House "czars," and the relationship between these new White House positions and their executive branch counterparts, noting that "too often, I have seen these lines of authority and responsibility become tangled and blurred, sometimes purposely, to shield information and to obscure the decision-making process."