Bush fills five government positions, bypassing Senate confirmation process

Friday, March 29th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

CRAWFORD, Texas AP) _ President Bush bypassed Senate confirmation procedures Friday and filled five government positions, putting the Republican National Committee's top lawyer on the Federal Election Commission.

Bush also installed a Department of Education official who has been strongly opposed by civil rights and education groups for his stances on affirmative action and other issues. The critics questioned whether Gerald Reynolds could enforce laws he opposed.

Michael E. Toner, the Republican Party's chief counsel, was the Bush campaign's general counsel and an attorney for former GOP Sen. Bob Dole's 1996 presidential campaign. At the FEC he succeeds fellow Republican Darryl Wold, whose term expired last April.

He has criticized legislation restricting the nation's campaign finance system. Bush signed the bill Wednesday, though saying it was flawed.

The six-member FEC enforces federal campaign finance laws. It includes three commissioners each from the Republican and Democratic parties, serving six-year terms.

Bush nominated Toner in November; four months later, the Senate had not approved the appointment.

Traditionally, new Democratic and Republican commissioners are named to the FEC at the same time. Bush asked Democratic commissioner Karl Sandstrom to remain on the panel, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

A president can bypass the Senate approval process temporarily by making appointments while the senators are in recess, as they are now. According to the Constitution, such appointees serve until the end of the current Congress.

Bush has expressed annoyance with the Senate for bottling up his nominees, and he installed several others earlier this year during a congressional recess.

Friday, he also named Dennis L. Schornack the commissioner and chairman of the International Joint Commission for the United States and Canada.

Bush named Emil H. Frankel assistant secretary of transportation for transportation policy, and Jeffrey Shane associate deputy secretary of transportation.

He made Reynolds assistant secretary of education for civil rights.

More than two dozen groups opposed Reynolds' nomination, including the American Association of People with Disabilities, the National Organization for Women, the American Association of University Women, the American Federation of Teachers, the NAACP and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, an umbrella organization for dozens of civil rights groups.

Reynolds has criticized affirmative action and has worked for or been affiliated with organizations opposed to such assistance for women and minorities.

In a 1997 Washington Times article he co-authored, Reynolds blasted the ``civil rights industry'' and called affirmative action ``a corrupt system of preferences, set-asides and quotas'' that discriminates in favor of one group at the expense of others.

``All these individuals are highly qualified for the positions to which they have been nominated,'' Johndroe said. Each was nominated ``to fill a critical position in the administration that can no longer go unoccupied,'' he said.