Memo Cited Bush's Late SEC Filings

An internal Securities and Exchange Commission memo from 1991 says President Bush repeatedly failed to file timely reports of his business interests and transactions before his election as Texas governor.

The memo said that when Bush was a director of a Texas-based oil and gas exploration firm called Harken Energy Corp., he had filed reports up to eight months late for four stock transactions totaling $1 million.

Bush brushed off a question about the transactions yesterday. "Everything I do is fully disclosed, it's been fully vetted. Any other question?" he said as he toured a church in Milwaukee.

The memo, provided to The Washington Post after it was the subject of a column yesterday in the New York Times, offers new details about Bush's rocky career as a Texas businessman before he turned to politics and was elected governor in 1994.