Congress: committee chairmanships hang in the balance - '96 elections

Nation's Business, Nov, 1996 by David Warner

From the business person's point of view, the results of the Nov. 5 elections will determine far more than who will be president for the next four years and which party will control the House and the Senate for the next two.

The elections will determine to a large extent which lawmakers will preside over congressional committees that make important decisions about legislation that significantly affects business.

If Democrats regain control over one or both houses of Congress, business is likely to see significant erosion in the support it has received since 1995 from the panels that deal with many of the issues important to it. In the House, those panels include the Commerce, Small Business, Economic and Educational Opportunities, and Ways and Means committees. In the Senate, they include the Environment and Public Works, Small Business, Labor and Human Resources, and Finance committees. (See the accompanying chart.)

When the 104th Congress adjourned in October, the GOP controlled the House by a margin of 235 to 198. There was one vacancy (the seat held by the late Rep. Bill Emerson), and Rep. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, an independent, usually voted with the Democrats. In the Senate, Republicans had a 53 to 47 edge.

"If the Democrats retake the House," says Jack Pitney, an associate professor of government at Claremont-McKenna College, in Claremont, Calif., "you can title it 'Return to Jurassic Park,' because the committee chairs, in general, tend to come from a much older generation, and they tend to look much more to Franklin Roosevelt than to Bill Clinton."

Among the veteran Democratic faces in the House are Rep. John J. LaFalce of New York and Rep. John D. Dingell of Michigan. LaFalce probably would become chairman of the Small Business Committee, which he chaired from 1987 through 1994, and Dingell likely would lead the Commerce Committee, which also has jurisdiction over environmental and health matters.

Dingell, who was elected to Congress in 1955, was chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee from 1981 through 1994, the panel was renamed the Commerce Committee in 1995.

Longtime business foes likely would take over the Economic and Educational Opportunities Committee, which handles labor, employment, and education and training matters, and the Ways and Means panel, which has jurisdiction over

taxation and trade. Rep. William Clay of Missouri is the ranking Democrat on the former, and Rep. Charles B. Rangel of New York is the senior Democrat on the latter. Clay has served in Congress for 28 years, Rangel for 26 years.

Before the Republican takeover of Congress in 1995, those committees were chaired, respectively, by Reps. William D. Ford of Michigan, who retired in 1994, and Dan Rostenkowski of Illinois, who was defeated in his '94 reelection bid.

A Democratic takeover of the Senate also would likely result in familiar but not particularly business-friendly faces peering down from the chairmen's seats on the Small Business, Labor and Human Resources, Finance, and Environment and Public Works committees. Those panels likely would be chaired, respectively, by Sens. Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York, and Max Baucus of Montana.

"The structure of the Senate tends to moderate the majority," says Pitney, who points to senators' ability to stall legislation through filibusters as one reason a Democratic-controlled Senate wouldn't be a "radical" change from the status quo.

President Clinton has been campaigning as a "New Democrat" who has embraced several ideals usually associated with Republicans, including welfare reform and tough crime provisions. Some of the would-be Democratic committee chairmen are distancing themselves from the centrist rhetoric, however.

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Rangel indicated opposition to tax cuts and tax reform and support for more government programs. Moynihan has been critical of the recently enacted welfare-reform measure.

Says Pitney: "Congressional Democrats are...strongly committed to a traditional liberal agenda, and once in power they will see themselves as Democrats first and 'Clintonites' a distant second. The committee chairs will be to the left of Bill Clinton, to the left of the Democratic Party, to the left of the other Democrats in Congress."

On the other hand, if the Republicans retain control of Congress, only two changes are expected in the chairmanships of the key business committees: Rep. Joel Hefley of Colorado would likely replace retiring Rep. Jan Meyers of Kansas as chairman of the Small Business Committee; and Sen. Jim M. Jeffords of Vermont, the he* apparent to the chairmanship of the Labor and Human Resources Committee, would take over from Sen. Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas, who is retiring from Congress.

RELATED ARTICLE: Business Stake In The Elections

If the Democrats regain control of the Senate and/or the House, Congress' practice of having majority party members head committees will put the panels in the hands of lawmakers with voting records less amicable to business. The percentages below rep resent each person's record of voting in favor of the business position on selected issue areas during their tenures in Congress. For the House and Senate committees focusing on each of the following areas, listed first is the Republican likely to head the panel if the GOP retains control, followed by the Democrat likely to take his place.