From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail…
House Republicans are in the process of selecting which members will chair committees. And no decision is more important than who will run Appropriations, the favor factory that parcels out federal spending and was at the center of recent earmark scandals.
Incoming Speaker John Boehner, who has an outsized role in the decision process, has an important choice to make. Should he tap an Old Bull with high seniority but spendthrift habits, or a Young Turk who wants to aggressively change the committee’s culture of spending.
One reason that the Republicans who came to power in 1994 were unable to restrain spending is that GOP appropriators succumbed to Washington’s lobbyist culture. Earmarks grew by a factor of 10 between 1995 and 2006, and two of the three men now vying for the chairman’s gavel were hip deep in that culture.
Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, who is 76, chaired the committee in 2005 and 2006 during the height of the earmark frenzy. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that he steered hundreds of millions in federal funds to clients of lobbyist Bill Lowery, a former congressman who was so close to Mr. Lewis that they exchanged two key staff members, "making their offices so intermingled that they seem to be extensions of each other." Mr. Lewis impressed some of his GOP colleagues with his experience yesterday in his formal presentation to become chairman, but he stumbled when he said he would keep most of his existing staff.
Rep. Hal Rogers of Kentucky, 73, was recently labeled "Oinker of the Year" by Citizens Against Government Waste. His more notorious earmarks include $21 million for the National Institute for Hometown Security. It’s located in the town of Somerset, which has a population of 11,000. Mr. Rogers argues that small towns in Kentucky are as vulnerable to terrorist attacks as major coastal cities and must play a role in defending themselves. Unlike Mr. Lewis, he told members that he would bring in fresh staff members to run Appropriations.
The dark horse candidate is Jack Kingston of Georgia. An appropriator and earmarker himself, Mr. Kingston says the committee’s new priority must be smaller government. He has presented House Republicans with a detailed game plan for limiting spending through caps that trigger automatic across-the-board spending cuts. And he points out that even at the height of the GOP spending spree when it controlled Congress, he used his perch as chair of an Appropriations subcommittee to curb spending on Congress by 1%.
The final decision on who becomes Appropriations chair will be made by the GOP Steering Committee, but everyone acknowledges it is unlikely to go against Mr. Boehner’s wishes. What Mr. Boehner should fear most is a revolt by the full Republican conference, which includes 80 freshmen, if the committee selects either Mr. Lewis or Mr. Rogers. The full conference has the power to overturn the Steering Committee’s choice in a secret ballot.
Who Mr. Boehner and his allies decide should head Appropriations will say a lot about how much the new Republican House has absorbed the lessons of last month’s election.