12-15-2001

CONGRESS: Three Lessons in Bipartisanship

When Rep. Michael G. Oxley, R-Ohio, decided to move legislation to revamp
terrorism insurance laws following the September 11 attacks, he worked
with both Republicans and Democrats on the Financial Services Committee
that he chairs to develop a consensus package. The committee approved the
measure by a resounding voice vote. "I thought it was a good-faith
effort," said Rep. Ken Bentsen, D-Texas, who co-sponsored Oxley's
proposal. "Mike Oxley is fair, and I have nothing but respect for
him."


But Bentsen and 182 other Democrats then voted against Oxley's bill on the
House floor on November 29. The Democrats objected that House Republican
leaders had inserted a provision limiting insurers' liability to lawsuits.
"It was particularly frustrating that the leadership intervened and
moved the bill backward," Bentsen complained. After the House
approved the bill 227-193, Oxley conceded that the steps taken by GOP
leaders "definitely made my life more complicated" in dealing
with the Senate, where Democratic leaders also oppose the legal liability
restrictions .


Oxley isn't the only House Republican chairman who has struggled with his
own party as much as he has with members across the aisle. So has House
Administration Committee Chairman Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who for much of this
year worked closely with Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., his panel's ranking
member, on crafting legislation to reform the election process. Ney and
Hoyer finally won their committee's unanimous backing on November 15, only
to encounter a host of jurisdictional and ideological challenges from
senior members of both parties on the Judiciary Committee.


After some delay, the House approved the Ney-Hoyer election reform bill
362-63 on December 12, although many Democrats complained they couldn't
offer alternatives. House Judiciary ranking member John Conyers Jr.,
D-Mich., has been working with Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., the
Rules and Administration Committee chairman, on a competing
measure.


Meanwhile, Rep. John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, the chairman of the Education and
the Workforce Committee, faced a stiff challenge in assembling a
bipartisan majority for his education reform bill earlier this year.
Boehner said it helped significantly that he had established a good
relationship with committee ranking member George Miller, D-Calif., one of
the House's most-outspoken liberals. "We had several meetings where I
said that I wanted the committee to be more productive and have a new
tone," Boehner said. "We came to an understanding of what our
goals would be, operationally."


But some conservatives were livid about the cooperation, and 34
Republicans voted against Boehner's bill when the House approved it 384-45
in May, even though President Bush had listed education as his top
domestic priority. By this week, the House and Senate were heading toward
overwhelming approval of a final compromise education bill.


As first-year committee chairmen, Oxley, Ney, and Boehner share some
common characteristics, in addition to all hailing from Ohio. Before
winning their House seats, they all served in the Ohio Legislature, which
they cite as a model of bipartisan legislating. In Congress, each has
usually voted the Republican line. But each took over his committee in
January pledging to work with Democrats in a chamber where such
cooperation has been the exception in recent years.


As Boehner explained it, "Midwest personalities are easygoing and
friendlier," compared with the Sun Belt Republicans-such as Majority
Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, or former Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.-who have
served as the prime GOP spokesmen since the party took control of the
House in 1995. Ney added: "For bipartisanship to work on a tough
issue, you need a couple of core members willing to work together and
stand their ground."


Yet in their drive to play nice, the Ohioans have hit more than a few
bumps along the road. And as Congress's burst of bipartisan productiveness
after September 11 quickly gave way to end-of-session gridlock-and bitter
accusations between the Republican House and the Democratic Senate-Oxley,
Ney, and Boehner struggled at times to keep their bills afloat.


From the beginning, the three House chairmen sought to work with their
Democratic counterparts. But they found that they could count on little
help from Bush or House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., in crafting the
legislative details. Bush, of course, had pledged upon taking office to
avoid congressional infighting and to "change the tone" in
Washington. Hastert likewise had committed himself to bipartisanship when
he assumed the speakership in 1999 and called for a return to the
"regular order" of moving legislation.


Moreover, the three Ohioans were frequently forced to butt heads with
other senior House Republicans who sought to circumvent their committees'
work. GOP Policy Committee Chairman Christopher Cox, R-Calif., challenged
Oxley on the insurance legal-liability issue. Judiciary Committee Chairman
F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., tried to delay Ney on election reform.
And Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, was among several conservative
Republicans who sought increased parental "choice" in Boehner's
education bill.


In the narrowly divided House, the chairmen could not turn their backs on
the Democratic legislative allies they had so carefully cultivated. But
neither could they ignore their own party's purists. "Traditionally,
there is pressure on committees to toe the party line so that members not
on that committee feel a part of the process," said Hastert spokesman
John Feehery. In other words, each side often seeks to use the legislative
process to score points with its party faithful.


"In a divided Congress," Feehery added, "bipartisanship
usually happens at the end of the process." That means in final
conference committee negotiations with the other chamber.


House rules give virtually total control to a simple majority, so there
often is little incentive to truly compromise. A one-vote margin to pass a
bill is as effective as an overwhelming vote, and no points are awarded
for polish or grace. "Our natural tendency is [to reach] not 280, but
218 votes," or a simple House majority, Feehery said.


Take the House's December 6 vote of 215-214 to approve the highly
controversial legislation providing presidential trade-negotiating
authority. "I wish it could have been more bipartisan," said
Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif., a leading proponent of
the measure. "But some say that a one-vote win is best because
otherwise, you give away too much." On the other hand, the Bush
Administration says it is looking to reduce Democratic opposition to its
trade-negotiating strategy. "This is a long road and the beginning of
the process," said one Administration official. "We hope to get
support from more Democrats."


Before the House's trade vote, Bush, U.S. Trade Representative Robert B.
Zoellick, and other senior Republicans had struggled to win the support of
Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., the Ways and Means Committee ranking
member, according to well-placed sources in both parties. Rangel had
bitterly opposed the trade-negotiating legislation crafted by Ways and
Means Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif. At a late-October meeting at the
White House, Bush suggested to Rangel that he meet with Hastert to craft a
compromise.


"After that meeting, we were optimistic," said a Republican
source. But efforts by the more dubious Hastert and Rep. Rob Portman of
Ohio, the chairman of the House Republican leadership, failed to find
common ground with Rangel on the trade bill. On December 6, a tearful
Thomas insisted at a post-vote press conference that he had successfully
achieved bipartisanship with other House Democrats, even though only 21
Democrats had supported the bill.


Rep. James P. Moran, D-Va., one of those who voted for the legislation,
said that he regretted the decision by Democratic leaders to "keep
the rank and file in line" on the trade bill, rather than allowing at
least two dozen more Democrats to "vote their constituency." The
result, contended Moran, was that "a lot of Democrats who say they
are for trade cast a very costly vote," both for themselves and the
nation. Rep. Robert T. Matsui, D-Calif., a senior Ways and Means member,
responded that party leaders did not impose their views, but that
"it's important for them to tell members what are the
consequences" of their votes.


Finding common ground on the pending economic stimulus legislation has
also been challenging. In late October, the House approved, by a mostly
party-line vote of 216-214, an economic stimulus package crafted by Thomas
that was heavy with corporate tax cuts. Subsequently, neither party had
enough votes to pass its stimulus plan in the Senate. Following weeks of
House-Senate bickering, a handful of senior lawmakers belatedly began to
seek a compromise.


These sagas underscore just how difficult and challenging it is to achieve
bipartisanship. "Bipartisanship is hard, especially when the parties
are nearly equal,"  Miller said. Before the 1994 election, when
Democrats held the House majority, Miller chaired what was then called the
Natural Resources Committee. Last year, he worked closely with Rep. Don
Young, R-Alaska, an ornery conservative who then chaired the Resources
Committee, to win enactment of a major expansion of federal conservation
programs.


"I learned a lot with Don Young, even though he is an opposite to
me," Miller said. "We always knew to talk through the issues and
to interact.... Real bipartisanship needs to be broadly based. Both sides
need to feel that they won."


As a key player this year on the education bill, Miller said he and
Boehner were willing to challenge their parties' respective interest
groups. Boehner, who chaired the House Republican Conference from 1995-98,
said that he too has learned lessons throughout the education debate.
"My rapport with Miller set us on a path to bipartisanship,"
Boehner said. "He protected the Left. I protected the
Right."


"We had to feel our way through hundreds of issues, without having
the bill blow up," Boehner added. "Many issues had a couple of
dozen members interested in them. And we would get together with them-in a
committee room, by phone, or I'd meet with them."


In any major piece of legislation such as the education bill, which
exceeds 1,000 pages, some members are bound to be unhappy with at least
some of the details. But, as loyal Buckeye football fans know, a steady
course of three yards and a cloud of dust will carry the day.


Richard E. Cohen

National Journal