CONGRESSIONAL CLIPBOARD
Committee Clout
JUST WHEN you think you are making some headway on Capitol Hill, committee chairmanships change. Although the structure of congressional committees might seem to fall into the category of “technical details,” the committee process is in reality the single most important factor influencing federal legislation. A quick look at the life cycle of a hill will illustrate the importance of committees and who controls them.
Immediately after a bill is introduced, it is referred to one or more of 21 House committees or 15 Senate committees, depending on the bill’s subject matter. All action on the bill now rests with that committee, which may act on it in whatever manner and at whatever pace it pleases—if at all. Generally, the chairman of the committee will refer the bill to one of half a dozen subcommittees within his committee. The bill is now a day old.
The first rule of motion on Capitol Hill is that nothing moves unless a chairman pushes it. Often a bill takes a one-way trip to a subcommittee, whereupon the chairman decides that it is either a “bad bill” or a “bad issue” and lets it sit until it expires with the end of that Congress. There is very little in this free land that can force a bill out of a subcommittee if the chairman doesn’t want it out.
Assuming that the subcommittee chairman does choose to act on the legislation, he will most probably support the bill in general but not necessarily in specifics. A nip here, a tuck there, and it will be just right. Other members of the subcommittee will also likely want minor changes in the bill, so that by the time they vote to “report it out” they could easily have nipped and tucked a tent into a handkerchief.
A good “before and after” example would be the Hotel-Motel Fire Safety Bill voted on by this past Congress. Congressmen Sherwood Boehlert (RNY) and Doug Walgren (D-PA) originally introduced legislation that would be a strong inducement for hotels and motels to retrofit with sprinkler and smoke detection systems. After it was amended by the Committee on Government Operations, it became a polite advisory that sprinklered establishments are safer than unsprinklered ones. Fortunately, the version agreed on by the committees of jurisdiction during this Congress respects the objectives of the original legislation, but it came a full year later than it should have.
Assuming a bill gets through the subcommittee in a reasonably recognizable form, the same script has to be played out in a full committee. Again, if the full committee chairman doesn’t like the bill, it may either die or simply be emasculated.
As you can see, the final form of the bill is almost entirely shaped before either the whole House of Representatives or the whole Senate has a chance to vote on it. Under certain conditions it is possible to amend a bill on the floor— that is, just prior to its being voted on by the entire body—but that is quite rare. As a rule, by the time a bill makes it to the floor it faces a straight take-it-orleave-it vote. The game is almost always won or lost at the committee level.
If this sounds confusing, take heart— it is. This is precisely why the Congressional Fire Services Caucus and the Congressional Fire Services Institute were formed. Both the caucus and the institute aim to simplify what is undoubtedly a complex issue.
In recent years the fire service has been lucky in terms of committee and subcommittee chairmen. Fire safety issues tend to go to the Subcommittee on Science, Research and Technology in the House and to the Subcommittee on Consumer in the Senate. Under the past chairmanship of Senator A1 Gore (DTN) and now under the chairmanship of Senator Richard Bryan (D-NV), fire service and fire safety issues have been shepherded through the Subcommittee on Consumer despite the hungry looks of FEMA and other predators. In the House of Representatives, the Subcommittee on Science, Research and Technology has long been chaired by one of the greatest champions of fire safety issues in Congress, Congressman Walgren. This month, however, that will all change.
In all probability, Congressman Walgren will resign the chairmanship of this subcommittee to assume a position of greater prominence on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Hie next chairman of the Science, Research and Technology Subcommittee can be expected to shape fire and life safety legislation through most of the 1990s. Making sure that this chairman understands the fire service and lends a sympathetic ear to fire service issues will be an investment that yields high returns. We can do this by continuing to write our representatives about major issues and specific bills over which they have jurisdiction.
Getting involved in the political process is not only knowing what happens but knowing how and why. At the risk of repeating myself, I will say that while the fire service should not become partisan, it must become political. Unlike in economics, there is no such thing as an “invisible hand” in politics; if you want something done, you had better make yourself seen, heard, and felt. Working through what seems to be an obscure and cumbersome system of committees and subcommittees may be roundabout, but it is assuredly the only path that leads to our destination.
