Pedal to the meddle

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jul 14, 2007

Senators declined to include new federal fuel economy standards in the energy package they approved several weeks ago. The bill remains a boondoggle-in-the-making, but it's a little less of one with the omission. But that doesn't mean the new mandates won't be included in whatever bill makes it to the president's desk, bypassing a floor debate in the House. How can such short cuts be possible in a great democracy's foremost deliberative body? It's possible because of Steny Hoyer.

Steny Hoyer is not the name of a vacuum cleaner company or a comic strip character. The Maryland Democrat is the House majority leader, and he has vowed to include a new federal mandate of 35 miles per gallon for cars and light trucks when the energy bill is taken up by a conference committee, without any debate in the House.

"Without getting too mired in the details of it, I will tell you it is my view that any bill that goes to the president will have CAFE in it," Hoyer told reporters earlier this week. "Any energy bill that goes to the president will include CAFE standards very close to the Senate provision." Hoyer was referring to the standards taken out of the original Senate bill.

As most who took civics classes know, a conference committee includes members from both the Senate and House. Its job is reconciling differences between the House and Senate version of a bill and producing something both bodies can live with. But in an era when procedural corner-cutting is the norm, conference committees are being misused.

Members sometimes will slip pet projects into spending bills that neither the House nor the Senate approved, without a hearing or debate on the project's merits. And as this case illustrates, leaders in the House and Senate can use a conference committee to rewrite a bill to suit their preferences, as Hoyer is proposing.

We believe more federal meddling in fuel economy standards is a terrible idea, for a host of reasons that are beside today's point. But the least Americans can expect, if they're going to have to shoulder the costs and consequences of new mandates, is that their representatives in the House will debate the matter before deciding. Although not always enlightening, at least these debates get members of Congress on the record, so they can be held accountable for their votes. Although debate on the conference committee's recommendations is allowed, most simply get rubber stamped and passed along, out of fear that more debate might sink the whole bill.

Hoyer's actions constitute an arrogant abuse of the process that should offend every American. And they contradict pledges by Democrats to run a more ethical and open institution than Republicans did. And then Democrats wonder why their public approval numbers are lower than the president's.

As a matter of principle, President Bush should veto any bill containing new fuel economy standards that haven't been fully debated and approved by both bodies.

Always a lady

Lady Bird Johnson was gentle, dignified, and soft-spoken -- everything that her blustering, headstrong, larger-thanlife husband, former President Lyndon Johnson, was not. But she had a quiet strength that helped redefine the role of the modern first lady and we join with many in mourning her passing.

She died Wednesday at age 94 at her Austin, Texas, home.

Johnson embodied Southern charm and Texas hospitality. But the outward calm belied a strength of character that was necessary to handle her headstrong husband. Just as the president was best known by his initials LBJ -- more like a cattleman's brand than a politician's name -- Lady Bird's nickname was a perfect fit.

Born Claudia Alta Taylor in the town of Karnack, she was given the life moniker as a baby by a nanny who said she was "pretty as a lady bird." She was a brilliant student, graduating from high school at age 15 with grades that qualified her to be class valedictorian. She turned down the honor, legend has it, because she was too afraid to make a speech.

By age 22 she had multiple degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and a state teaching certificate.

After marrying LBJ, she overcame her aversion to public speaking and stumped heavily for her husband in all his campaigns, charming audiences in a sweet Southern drawl that is fading into history. Even after their political life ended, she continued to make public appearances supporting organizations and causes she supported.

Lady Bird is best known for championing conservation and the use of native plants. In 1982 she founded the National Wildflower Research Center, which now bears her name. Rather than simply create refuges and centers to display wildflowers, Johnson worked to turn public places, including even highway medians, into public gardens where anyone could see and appreciate native plants.

Her method was simple; she convinced state officials to incorporate native plants into public works projects. Seeds of bluebonnets, Indian paint brush and other wildflowers were strewn everywhere, adding color to the otherwise drab strips of pavement throughout the state of Texas. The trend spread to many other states, to the benefit and delight of millions of American motorists.