07-28-2001
CONGRESS: John Dingell's Staying Power
When Rep. John D. Dingell, D-Mich., arrived at the White House earlier
this month to discuss energy legislation, President Bush greeted him with
a friendly jab. "You're the biggest pain in the ass on Capitol
Hill," joked the President. "Thank you for a high
compliment," responded Dingell, who was first elected to Congress in
1955, right around the time that Bush began playing Little League.
"I've worked 47 years for that reputation, and I'd hate to see it
dissipate in one afternoon."
The exchange between the rookie President and the House's most senior
member underscores the influence that Dingell still wields in his 24th
term on Capitol Hill. During Bush's first six months in office, Dingell
has schooled him in what nine Presidents, scores of agency heads, and
hundreds of members of Congress learned before: He is a lawmaker who can
thwart a President's priorities, muscle his own initiatives through
Congress, and otherwise be a major-league pain to the White House,
congressional Republicans, and even his fellow congressional
Democrats.
This month alone, Dingell has exploited his leverage as the ranking
Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee to wedge himself into
a handful of key issues. He riled the White House by sparking a General
Accounting Office investigation into the energy-policy task force that
Vice President Dick Cheney put together earlier this year. He annoyed
congressional Republicans by co-sponsoring popular bipartisan patients'
rights legislation in the House that goes further than Bush prefers. He
distressed senior Democrats by cutting a deal with Republicans that allows
major elements of the President's energy plan to move forward. And he may
anger members on both sides of the aisle by pushing broadband Internet
legislation through the House before the August recess.
Of course, it's not unusual for Dingell to be in the middle of so many
fights. He has long been known as one of Capitol Hill's most powerful and
effective committee chairmen ever, thanks to his tenure at the helm of
Energy and Commerce from 1981-95, and he has played a central role in many
of the major laws enacted in the past half-century. Over the years,
Dingell has also masterfully asserted Congress's right to oversee the
executive branch. He once helped to throw a Reagan Administration official
in jail for obstructing a committee investigation.
What is unusual is that after all his time in Congress, including the past
six and a half years in the minority, the 75-year-old Dingell still has
the fire and the wherewithal to continue to boldly make his mark. Dingell,
after all, is in more than a few ways Capitol Hill's version of Cal
Ripken-and Ripken is retiring this year. Elected in December 1955 to
replace his father, Dingell has served more consecutive years than any
other current member of Congress. He has even surpassed 98-year-old Sen.
Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., who was elected in 1954 but took a few months off
in 1956. Dingell is the only member of the House elected in the 1950s, and
one of five elected before 1970. Nearly 20 percent of his current House
colleagues were born after he first entered the chamber.
What's the secret to Dingell's longevity? Even in this era of poll-tested
soundbites, he still counts on old-fashioned hard work and smarts to do
the job. He takes the time to master the substance of legislation, with
the help of one of the most experienced staffs in Congress, and he relies
on his unmatched knowledge of the institution that he has honed since
working as a congressional page in 1937. As Dingell himself said in a
recent interview: "I just work like hell, and good things seem to
happen."
Dingell's colleagues say that perhaps most important to his resilience, he
has shrewd political instincts that allow him to build the coalitions
needed to move legislation. "He understands which issues he
absolutely has to solve to get the majority he is seeking," said Rep.
Rick Boucher, D-Va., the ranking member of the committee's Energy and Air
Quality Subcommittee. "That knowledge only comes with
experience." Added Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-La., the
current chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee: "I've learned
one thing in my years under Dingell-know what's do-able and what's
not."
And Dingell isn't ready to quit yet. If anything, he seems more energized
this year than in the recent past. Michigan's Republican-controlled
Legislature has completed a redistricting plan that would put him in the
same district as fellow Democratic Rep. Lynn Rivers, but Dingell has
pledged to run for a 25th term next year, even though some senior members
might take the opportunity to retire. "I expect," Dingell said
without hesitation, "to be re-elected."
Learning From the Ground Up
The son of Polish Catholic immigrants, Dingell developed values and a work
ethic that were ingrained during a dozen years of Jesuit education. The
priests at Georgetown Prep and Georgetown University taught him to try to
help others. But his true inspiration is his father, the late Rep. John
Dingell Sr., a 12-term New Deal Democrat from Detroit who sponsored Social
Security, the first interstate highway bill, and national health care
legislation. "John still to this day loves his father," said
Dingell's wife, Debbie, an executive at General Motors Corp., in an
interview. "He is motivated by the kind of public servant his father
was-that's what drives him."
In part because his father died of tuberculosis as a young man, Dingell
each year faithfully reintroduces a bill to provide Americans with
universal health care. Dingell said he remains "intensely proud"
of his father. "I regard him as a giant," he said, although he
adds: "I am not my father. I think for myself."
As Dingell made his way through Georgetown law school in the early 1950s,
he worked as the Capitol's chief elevator operator-a job he got because of
his dad's position in the House-and he literally learned from the ground
up. When his father died in 1955, the 29-year-old Dingell was elected to
replace him.
Two decades later, Dingell grabbed the reins of power for the first time
when he and Rep. John Moss, D-Calif., organized a rebellion against the
apathetic chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Harley
Staggers, D-W.Va. The pair launched the modern-day committee by boosting
its budget and empowering subcommittee chairmen to pursue aggressive
agendas. As his booty, Dingell claimed the gavel at the Energy and Power
Subcommittee.
He took over at a perfect time. A few years later, a major energy crisis
threatened the country, and Dingell soon proved he could produce. After a
series of hearings, he drafted a far-reaching energy conservation bill and
muscled it through his subcommittee in a legendary 1977 markup that lasted
17 straight days.
But Dingell also earned a reputation as a bully. With his broad new
powers, he became fond of strong-arming opponents and burying their
legislative priorities. After he was elected chairman of the full Energy
and Commerce panel in 1981, he cemented his standing by preventing the
committee's second-ranking Democrat, Rep. James Scheuer of New York, from
chairing a subcommittee. "The day they passed out subcommittee chairs
was known as `Passover' in Scheuer's office," quipped a former
committee aide.
Those close to Dingell say he never forgave Scheuer for breaking his word
years earlier during some undisclosed dispute. But Dingell maintains he
had nothing to do with his colleague's "misfortune." When asked
why Scheuer never got a subcommittee chairmanship, Dingell replied:
"The answer is simple: He never could get elected." He added
smugly: "I never really worked hard to kill him. He did a fine job
doing that himself."
Over the course of his 14-year reign as chairman, Dingell amassed quite a
fiefdom. His committee managed to capture jurisdiction over nearly
everything that moved. On a wall in the committee's cloakroom, Dingell
hung a framed picture of the Earth. He said it represented the panel's
jurisdiction.
During that time, Dingell developed another advantage often overlooked by
his colleagues: a well-trained and experienced staff. Dingell paid his
aides generously by congressional standards, gave them responsibility, and
relied on their expertise. As a result, he was armed with some of the best
talent on Capitol Hill. "That means that when he goes into battle, he
has way more knowledge than anyone else," says John Arlington, a
committee aide from 1987-91.
Dingell's staff recalls the peculiar occasions in the late 1980s when Bush
Administration officials at the Environmental Protection Agency would
enlist the help of Dingell aide Dick Frandsen to locate information about
the agency that Dingell himself had requested. "Frandsen knew more
about the EPA than they did," a former aide reminisced. Another aide,
David Finnegan, worked for Dingell for so long that the two disagree on
when they met. One thought 1958, the other 1960.
Downs and Ups
The mid-1990s brought setbacks for Dingell. First, the Republicans took
control of the House in 1995 and pried the chairman's gavel from Dingell's
clutch. Then, they stripped a chunk of the panel's jurisdiction. Soon
after, rumors began spreading that Dingell would retire. Instead, he
adjusted to his new role as ranking member under then-Chairman Tom Bliley,
R-Va. Though Bliley pursued a less-active agenda than his tireless
predecessor, Dingell contributed to approving major reforms of the
telecommunications and financial services industries.
Though he no longer was chairman, Dingell's mastery of the procedural
rules gave him strength. His favorite tactic: forcing the committee clerk
to read aloud, line by line, 100-page bills that he objected to. If the
clerk skipped a single word, he asked the reading to start all over
again.
Then, in December 1999, Dingell fainted at a reception and an ambulance
rushed him to the hospital. When a priest arrived at his bedside, Dingell
was in good spirits. "Father, I hate to disappoint you, but I don't
need you tonight," he reportedly said. The episode turned out to be a
simple case of dehydration after a long day and a stiff martini, which
Dingell says he enjoys shaken, not stirred.
But that was not the last of Dingell's health problems. Early last year, a
stubborn ankle injury forced him to hobble around the House on crutches.
When a metal screw in his ankle snapped, Dingell was consigned to the same
kind of motorized scooter that ushers 79-year-old Sen. Jesse Helms,
R-N.C., through his final years in Congress. The nagging injury seemed to
lower Dingell's spirits. A distinguished career was thought to be on its
last legs. If the Democrats won back control of the House in November
2000, a few aides whispered around election time, Dingell would face a
Democratic challenge for the committee gavel.
Yet when Democrats failed to win control of the House, Senate, or White
House, Dingell startled observers by returning to Capitol Hill in January
fully energized. He junked the crutches, ditched his motor scooter, and
took on an aggressive schedule. "A few years ago, the end was
near," said one lobbyist. "I don't know what the hell he did,
but he is being effective again."
Part of the credit goes to Tauzin, who took over as Energy and Commerce
chairman in January. He's a former Democrat who learned how to run the
panel during 14 years under Dingell, and he has revitalized the committee
by modeling it after Dingell's reign. To do so, Tauzin has reached out to
Dingell by giving him a larger budget, additional staff, and more sway
over committee business.
Soon after Tauzin took over the committee, for example, he worked with
Dingell on legislation to increase broadband Internet service. That
measure-the ubiquitous "Tauzin-Dingell" bill-passed the
committee earlier this year and could come to the House floor as early as
next week.
More recently, when Tauzin needed to move Bush's energy policy through the
committee, he sat down with Dingell over the Fourth of July recess and
together they crafted a bill they both supported. As part of the deal,
Dingell delivered Democratic votes for the Republican bill, and Tauzin
headed off a large increase in automobile fuel-efficiency standards-a
major concern to automakers in Dingell's Detroit-area district. The Energy
and Commerce Committee approved the energy bill, 50-5, on July 19, and
House Republicans plan to bring it to a floor vote next week.
But Dingell continues to cause trouble for Republicans on health care
legislation. His latest effort on patients' rights legislation-which he is
co-sponsoring with Republican Reps. Charlie Norwood of Georgia and Greg
Ganske of Iowa-elicited a veto threat from Bush. Republican leaders hope
to defeat the Dingell-Norwood-Ganske bill and pass a narrower alternative
bill.
Meantime, the fact that the White House has gone Republican has
invigorated Dingell's oversight activities. Although he has never been
easy on Democratic Administrations (he once called President Clinton's
Kyoto treaty "the most asinine treaty I've ever seen"), Dingell
clearly enjoys pestering Republican Presidents. "Dingell understands
that Congress is a separate branch of government, and he has fiercely
asserted its prerogatives," said Rep. David R. Obey, D-Wis.
Earlier this year, Dingell launched a GAO investigation to find out which
oil and gas company lobbyists helped the White House shape its energy
policy. Dingell has also slammed the Administration for routinely
responding to his requests for information with computer-generated form
letters. In a biting speech on the House floor on June 7, Dingell
sarcastically credited the White House's "remarkable, automated, and
superbly efficient computer system" for "moving forward the
science of communications to new and higher levels." He added:
"Each time I have written to President Bush, I have received an
identical response from this amazing computer ... each faithfully signed
by the President's aide, Nicholas Calio."
The 16th District of Dingell
Michigan Democrats are challenging the Republicans' redistricting map in
court. But if Dingell is forced into a redistricting-induced election
contest against fellow Democratic Rep. Rivers in November 2002, he is the
heavy favorite to win. "Michigan is Dingell country," said one
Democratic lawmaker. "He would cream her." Dingell has faced
only token election opposition since the 1960s, and Rivers, according to
Michigan insiders, is weighing a run for the Statehouse.
Even some Michigan Republicans want to see the generally liberal Dingell
remain in the House, because of the considerable clout he has to help the
state. "If a Democrat is going to be in that district, it might as
well be John Dingell," said Paul Welday, an aide to Rep. Joseph
Knollenberg, R-Mich.
Though the redistricting plan does not appear to pose a threat to Dingell,
it may complicate plans to keep his House seat in his family. Insiders
believe that Dingell would like to bestow the seat once held by his father
on his son, Christopher, or on his wife, Debbie. But Christopher, a
term-limited state senator, plans to run for a seat on the Wayne County
circuit court. "Chris is not interested in running [for the
House]," John Dingell said. Debbie, meanwhile, says she is focused on
the corporate world. "I'm still climbing the ladder at GM," she
said. "There is still a glass ceiling that needs to be broken
here."
Dingell, for his part, disputed that he could hand his seat to a family
member. "This is not something that can be passed around like a
country club membership or a seat on the stock exchange. It has to be
earned," he said. "The seat and the job all belong to the
people. If you do a good job, they'll reward you with another two
years."
Still, after nearly a half-century in the House, Dingell will not hold the
seat forever. Asked how long he would serve in the House, Dingell
responded: "Till I get tired of this-or the people get tired of
me." Brody Mullins is a reporter for National Journal's
CongressDaily.
Brody Mullins
National Journal
