No Hatch chairmanships till '09?

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Nov 1, 2006 | by Bob Bernick Jr. Deseret Morning News

U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch won't be a committee chairman until 2009, two years later than he originally predicted when he had to give up his Senate Judiciary Committee chairmanship in 2004.

A Hatch spokesman says he does not know why Hatch would have made such a comment to the Deseret Morning News two years ago.

Hatch has often talked about his power as a senior senator during this year's campaigning. And he talked about it again Tuesday in his final debate with Democratic challenger Pete Ashdown, held before the Salt Lake Rotary Club.

Hatch, who appears on his way to a Nov. 7 victory over Ashdown, told the Morning News in July 2004 that he expected to be chairman of the powerful Senate Finance Committee following the 2006 elections.

Republicans have a six-year limit on Senate committee chairmanships. Current Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, first became chairman of that committee for a short time in 2001. But he lost that chairmanship when Democrats won back control of the Senate, and then regained the chairmanship in 2003.

Hatch now acknowledges that he won't possibly get that committee chairmanship until 2009, after the 2008 elections, should Republicans still control the Senate.

Hatch, first elected in 1976, said Tuesday that he "soon" will be the ranking Republican on the Finance Committee, where, he said, he will draft bills to help Americans deal with health care costs, Medicare and other important medical issues.

Responded Ashdown: "Thirty years is enough to solve the health care problems."

When Hatch talked about balancing the federal budget, Ashdown responded: "In many of our discussions, Sen. Hatch talks about taking the Finance (committee) chair while (Sen.) Bob Bennett (R- Utah) takes the Banking (committee chair). And I have to tell you, that for all the fear-mongering Sen. Hatch does in these discussions, nothing strikes terror into my heart more than hearing that it will be an attorney (Hatch) and a silver spoon (Bennett) in charge of nation's finances. We can do better."

Bennett, a multimillionaire, is the son of former U.S. Sen. Wallace F. Bennett.

In 2004, Hatch told the Morning News: "I'm in line" for the Finance Committee chairmanship after the 2006 elections.

Hatch's campaign manager, Dave Hansen, said Tuesday that he doesn't know how that quote, or any other hint that Hatch would be a committee chair so soon, happened, since Hatch has known for years that it would be after the 2008 elections before he could be a committee chair again.

GOP senators in 1995 tweaked a system that had traditionally allowed the longest-serving member in the majority to serve indefinitely as chairman. Instead, they limited terms to six years and allowed election of chairmen by secret ballot.

The new rule knocked Hatch out of the chair of the Judiciary Committee in early 2005 after six years and he was replaced by Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

If Democrats take control of the Senate either in the Nov. 7 election or in the elections of 2008, Hatch will fall into the minority and he won't chair any committees.

A committee chairmanship is important. Chairmen set the committee's agenda, hire the committee's majority staff and can delay or kill a bill or appropriation.

The Judiciary Committee oversees all judicial appointments. And Hatch was constantly sought out by the national media during the 1990s, when as committee chairman he battled then-Democratic President Bill Clinton over his judicial nominees.

Hatch has had a much lower national profile in recent years, since his chairmanship ended.

On his campaign Web site Hatch refers to his seniority and how he can bring influence to help Utah.

He doesn't say on his Web site that he won't hold a committee chairmanship again until 2009, instead saying he is the most senior GOP member of the Judiciary Committee and the second-most senior GOP member on the Senate Finance Committee.

Contributing: Lee Davidson

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com