Posted 2005-01-28 03:21:00.0
http://www.cq.com
Congress Declares War on Veterans by Merging Congressional Subcommittees
A plan by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., to eliminate three subcommittees and distribute their turf to other panels is roiling appropriators on both sides of the Capitol.
Under Lewis’ plan, confirmed by a Senate Appropriations aide, the Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies panel would be broken apart, with its pieces distributed to other subcommittees. Veterans’ programs would go to the Military Construction Subcommittee, which would also pick up defense health accounts from the Defense Subcommittee. The Environmental Protection Agency would shift from VA-HUD to the Interior funding measure, while housing programs would be transferred to the Transportation-Treasury bill.
The District of Columbia Subcommittee also would be abolished under the Lewis proposal, with its responsibilities shifted to the Interior Subcommittee.
Finally, the Legislative Branch Subcommittee would be eliminated, with its annual bill handled by the full committee.
Some considerable resistance is expected in the Senate, particularly from former Appropriations Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who remains chairman of the Defense Subcommittee, and from Christopher S. Bond, R-Mo., chairman of the VA-HUD panel, who is fifth most senior Senate Republican on the panel.
Competing for Scarce Funds
The VA-HUD bill was the most problematic of all the 13 appropriations bills during the fiscal 2005 appropriations round completed last year. It never came to the House floor because Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, opposed its funding levels for NASA, which lost out in competition with other agencies in that measure, particularly the Veterans Administration.
Lewis’ proposal, while less radical than one proposed last year by DeLay, promises to generate plenty of debate. Stout resistance is expected from Bond and former Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, longtime chairman of the Defense Subcommittee.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran, R-Miss., is the point man in that chamber, and it is not clear how much he will resist the plan. Rep. James T. Walsh, R-N.Y., chairman of the House VA-HUD Subcommittee for the past six years, is term limited out of a job, leaving the VA-HUD Subcommittee without a patron in that chamber.
One possibility for Walsh is to take over the Transportation-Treasury Subcommittee from Ernest Istook, R-Okla., who has fallen out of favor with House GOP leaders after last year axing transportation projects in the districts of 21 GOP lawmakers who resisted his efforts to slash Amtrak funding. Appropriations sources, as well as the Tulsa World newspaper, report that Istook may soon be given the boot.
Senior Senate GOP aides had earlier cast cold water on the prospects for significant change in subcommittee jurisdictions in their committee, given the explosive consequences of even modest shifts in turf. But aides report that Cochran, though cagey, remarked favorably on Lewis’ ideas in a leadership meeting Wednesday.
And Appropriations aides said that if personalities are removed from the equation, Lewis’ plan actually makes sense.
“It is logical in terms of the construct and is not nearly as revolutionary as DeLay proposed,” said a senior Senate GOP aide.
© CQ
No comments:
Post a Comment