The Bush administration is considering shrinking or eliminating some federal offices charged with
protecting women's interests and has stalled activity in other offices, say women's advocacy groups
and some of the women who work for the offices involved.

Those with uncertain futures, these sources say, include the 10 regional offices of the Labor Department's
Women's Bureau. The sources also say panels that advise the military and the Department of Veterans
Affairs on women's issues have been stalled because the White House has not named new members.

There has also been talk of consolidating offices on women's health in agencies like the Food and Drug
Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kathy Rodgers, president of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, called the developments "a
broad-based undermining of the structures set up over the years to make sure that American women can participate."
Claire Buchan, a White House spokeswoman, said, "The president and this administration have a deep
commitment to address issues that are important to American women and women throughout the world."

Women's groups were critical of President Bush when he did not continue the White House Office on
Women's Initiatives and Outreach, created by Bill Clinton in 1995.  One group whose work has been stalled
by White House inaction is the Department of Veterans Affairs' Advisory Committee on Women Veterans,
which over the years has helped the agency address issues like mammograms and sexual trauma.

"We were going along fine at our meeting in March and June," said Lory Manning, a former Navy captain who
is on the committee. "But the nominations of new members to replace those whose terms are expiring have been
languishing over at the White House since July. The October meeting was canceled, which could just be a question
of the war. But then I got a call saying there would be no meeting in January or February, because the committee's
charter has not been renewed, the new members have not been named and our funding has not been released."

There has been considerable consternation, too, over the Bush administration's not naming new members to a
military advisory group, the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services.  Barbara Brehm, whose term
as military director of that committee ended in January, said the failure to continue such advisory groups showed
"a significant lack of interest in addressing women's issues."  Ms. Buchan said the White House planned to nominate
new members to the advisory committees, and a veterans' spokesman said the charter was about to be renewed.
As for the Labor Department's Women's Bureau, Ms. Buchan said it was too early in the budget process
to discuss possible cuts.

On Monday, five advocacy groups wrote to Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao to protest the possible
elimination of the Women's Bureau regional offices — and the elimination of the Labor Department's
multimillion- dollar initiative on equal pay.

"The elimination of the Women's Bureau regional offices, like the elimination of the department's equal
pay initiative, would end programs that are vital and necessary to working women today," they wrote.
The bureau was created in the 1920's on the heels of women's suffrage.