LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic Universe-Document
LEXIS-NEXIS® Academic
Copyright 2000 / Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
View Related Topics
July 4, 2000, Tuesday,
Home Edition
SECTION: Part A; Part 1; Page 1; National Desk
LENGTH: 1241 words
HEADLINE: CAN-DO CONGRESS VEXES GOP LEADERS
BYLINE: JANET HOOK, TIMES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
Here on Capitol Hill, it's suddenly beginning to look like a do-something
Congress. But for the Republican members who lead the House and Senate, that is
not entirely a good thing: They don't like a lot of the things being done.
Relaxing the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Closing campaign finance loopholes. Giving
doctors the right to
bargain collectively with
HMOs. Funding a lawsuit against big tobacco companies.
Congress has moved on all those issues and more over the last few busy
weeks--all in spite of the bitter objections of GOP leaders.
The success of these initiatives is a reflection in part of the difficulty
these leaders have controlling the House and Senate with very narrow
majorities. But it also reflects the tension between the conservative positions
that are the staple of the GOP's national policy and the local political needs
of individual Republicans fighting to keep their seats in this year's bitterly
contested congressional elections.
For example:
* GOP leaders reluctantly accepted a compromise to allow limited direct trade
with Cuba under pressure from farm-state Republicans, including Rep. George R.
Nethercutt Jr. of Washington, one of their most vulnerable members.
* A rebellion among moderate Republicans from the Northeast was behind last
week's surprising vote on the first change in campaign finance law in decades,
a measure that would force disclosure of secret donors to a newly popular brand
of political committee.
* House
Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) swallowed his objections and allowed the
doctors' labor bill to pass early Friday to fulfill a personal promise to Rep.
Tom Campbell (R-San Jose), who is running an uphill campaign against Sen.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).
This sudden burst of legislative activity has challenged the perception, touted
by Democrats, that Republicans are running a do-nothing Congress. It also
underscores how much the legislative agenda in the coming months will be shaped
as much by the political desires of individual lawmakers as by any grand
ideological design.
"It's a normal election-year dynamic: Vulnerable incumbents first take care of
themselves," said Marshall Wittmann, an analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation.
"One thing politicians will put ahead of party
loyalty is self-preservation."
Tony Rudy, a top aide to House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), acknowledged
that GOP leaders have been forced to make concessions on some bills recently.
But he added that the larger goal for the leaders is to keep the party together
on big issues, such as the annual budget battle with the Clinton
administration, and to do what it takes to get enough Republicans reelected
this fall to keep the party in control of Congress.
"Sometimes you have to throw some bones to groups of members," said Rudy.
"He's doing everything he can to protect members."
Both parties were trying to put their own spin on Congress' midyear record as
lawmakers took their weeklong July 4 recess. After months of gridlock and
legislative lethargy, the pace picked up in recent weeks, with lawmakers
working until midnight day after
day. Most of the work was on the appropriation bills needed to finance the
government, including an $ 11.2-billion midyear spending bill that cleared the
Senate on Thursday. It would provide money for a major anti-narcotics
initiative in Colombia, the U.S. peacekeeping mission in Kosovo and aid for
victims of recent natural diasters.
Republicans have managed to stick together on many signature issues, such as
repealing the estate tax, which passed the House recently. GOP leaders also
have held their troops in line behind the party's versions of legislation to
provide a Medicare prescription drug benefit and to regulate managed health
care--measures that strategists hope will make it harder for Democrats to run
against Republicans on those issues this fall.
Democrats said that much of the recent legislative activity is more apparent
than real,
expressing doubt that many of the bills in play will ever become law. Still,
all but 10 House Republicans voted last month for the GOP Medicare drug bill
and, in the Senate, all but four Republicans voted for the GOP alternative on
managed health care.
But on other issues, Republicans have not been as disciplined. And that makes
life especially difficult for GOP leaders in the House, where, if only six
Republicans defect on a vote that breaks down on party lines, the GOP loses.
DeLay's office recently sent out an urgent memo upbraiding the staffs of
lawmakers who were unexpectedly absent from the floor, forcing the leadership
to withdraw a bill on land management regulations because of a lack of votes.
At a time when every vote counts,
many House Republicans are being pulled in different directions.
GOP leaders are no longer counting on Rep. Rick Lazio of New York to stick with
them on some tough votes because, in his Senate race against First Lady Hillary
Rodham Clinton, he is trying to shore up his credentials as a moderate
Republican. For example, he was one of only five House Republicans to vote
against a spending bill that would make controversial cuts in housing programs.
Rep. Merrill Cook (R-Utah) may also be less responsive to leadership requests
to stick with the party: He just lost his seat in a bitterly contested primary
election, joining Rep. Matthew G. Martinez (D-Monterey Park) as the only
incumbents to fail to win renomination so far this year.
There are four House Republicans, including Lazio,
who are running for the Senate. And GOP leaders are concerned that, as the
election nears, they may be more inclined to be on the campaign trail than in
the well of the House voting.
One of those Senate aspirants is Campbell, who had his moment in the
legislative sun when the House voted for his bill to allow
doctors to bargain collectively with
health maintenance organizations. The top GOP leaders opposed the bill, but the measure was approved, 276 to
136.
The volatility caused by election-year dynamics also was on vivid display in
recent debate over Justice Department plans to file a lawsuit against the
tobacco companies. In the course of one week, the House voted against funding
the lawsuit, then reversed itself and voted twice to finance it.
The tension between the official GOP line and local political concerns was
particularly acute in talks that produced the House
compromise measure on Cuba trade.
Leading the charge to relax the long-standing embargo to allow food and
medicine sales was Nethercutt, who is facing a tough fight for reelection in
his export-dependent farm district. The issue is a big part of his campaign,
but it put him squarely at odds with party leaders, who are adamantly opposed
to changing U.S. policy toward Cuba.
The compromise last month--allowing food and medicine exports but only under
financial conditions that will limit actual sales--was designed by GOP leaders
to give Nethercutt something to brag about while still letting Republican Cuban
American lawmakers from Florida claim that they took the sting out of it.
As House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) put it, the aim of the
negotiations was to allow both
sides to
"go home and take a bow."
The measure's ultimate fate remains uncertain. Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott (R-Miss.) reiterated his opposition to it Friday, saying:
"If I can find a way to kill it , I will."
LOAD-DATE: July 4, 2000