Washington — Callers to the White House Office for Women's Initiatives and Outreach listen to the telephone ring six times before a recording begins.
"As of January 19, 2001, this office no longer exists, and we will not be able to retrieve your calls," a pleasant female voice says. "We apologize for the inconvenience."
Aides to President Bush had given no clue they had disbanded the small office created by the Clinton administration as a conduit for women's political concerns.
So the leaders of feminist organizations, already disheartened by Bush's appointments and his views on abortion and affirmative action, reacted with outrage this week as word began to circulate of the office's demise.
"If (Bush) doesn't want there to be polarization, wants to get out of gridlock and head-knocking, this is a strange way to go about it," said Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women.
The White House was reluctant Wednesday to discuss the matter. Asked at a morning press briefing about the accuracy of a report in Wednesday's Boston Globe that the office had closed, press secretary Ari Fleischer replied: "I don't have a final answer on that yet. ... I haven't gotten to the bottom of it yet."
Later in the day, White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan said, "We are committed to strong relations with women's groups."
She said that members of the White House public liaison office are designated to interact with such groups, as had been the case during Clinton's tenure. "We are still working on how best to structure that," she said.
Another White House source, however, confirmed there were no plans to reopen the office for women's initiatives.
Created in mid-1995, the office never had more than a few staffers but was considered symbolically and strategically important among the many women's groups that had urged Clinton to open it.
Its staff reviewed legislation and administration proposals to gauge their impact on women, and arranged briefings. They also created a symbiotic relationship with women's groups, alerting them to forthcoming issues, in exchange for early feedback on how those groups would respond.
At various points, leaders of women's groups recalled this week, the office had arranged meetings with senior administration officials including Clinton, at times on issues that included domestic violence, equal pay, bankruptcy, abortion, the participation of women in clinical trials and Social Security reforms.
Joyce Ladner, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, compared Bush's move to close the office to his suspension of Clinton's initiative on race. "I don't see women as a group or people of color as being on his radar in the way President Clinton identified them as special interest groups," she said. "I expect to see just a lot of dismantling."
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