House Creates Panel [Department of Homeland Security]

Roll Call ^ | June 20, 2002 | Susan Crabtree

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House leaders moved one step closer to creating a Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday but have agreed to put off tackling nettlesome committee turf wars until next year.

While Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) hailed the bipartisan cooperation involved in Wednesday's easy passage of a resolution to establish an ad hoc leadership committee that will oversee the massive government reorganization, partisan seams were already beginning to show.

The panel, chaired by Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), will consist of a bipartisan group of nine House leaders with a one-seat GOP majority. Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas), GOP Conference Chairman J.C. Watts (Okla.), GOP Conference Vice Chairwoman Deborah Pryce (Ohio) and GOP Leadership Chairman Rob Portman (Ohio) will make up one side of the committee. The Democratic team will include Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), Caucus Chairman Martin Frost (Texas), Caucus Vice Chairman Bob Menendez (N.J.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), assistant to the Minority Leader.

Watts said leaders have agreed to allow the House Government Reform Committee and all the panels who claim jurisdiction over some aspect of the new department three weeks to review the issues that will arise in the consolidation. After that time period, the chairmen will be asked to advise the leadership committee on how best to proceed. But the ad hoc committee will also begin to meet on its own - possibly as early as next week.

Armey, however, has indicated that the new committee will not be a forum to settle long-term Congressional turf battles. He said a decision will be deferred on whether to create a standing committee to oversee the new department. For now, he wants to focus solely on building the legislative structure for the agency with the goal of completing action by Sept. 11.

"There is no need and there's, frankly, little opportunity to restructure our committee system this year," Armey said. "I don't think it's necessary to do that."

Rep. Mike Oxley (R-Ohio), chairman of the Financial Services Committee, wholeheartedly agreed.

"I don't think we want to look like a bunch of pygmies fighting amongst ourselves when [Homeland Security Director] Tom Ridge and the president are looking down waiting for us to get this done," he said. "We can worry about the jurisdictional issues next year."

Armey got a taste of the intense nature of the jurisdictional battles ahead at a meeting of committee chairmen Monday afternoon. During the gathering, several angry chairmen lobbied hard to be included on the ad hoc panel to no avail, according to knowledgeable GOP aides.

So far House GOP leaders are leaving their options open on just how they plan to address jurisdictional issues when the time comes to do so. Staying true to his anti-big government principles, Armey has argued against establishing a permanent standing committee on homeland security.

But several key GOP lawmakers who privately advocate adding an additional panel as the best way to solve the internal battles say no decision has been made on that front.

Watts said he and the rest of the bipartisan group of leaders appointed to the ad hoc panel are focused on getting the department up and running. Watts said he did not want to create "headaches" for Hastert by lobbying for another panel right now, but he indicated his support for adding a standing committee as one way for solving the looming turf wars and noted his credentials for serving as chairman of such a committee.

"I probably see us having a permanent committee," he said. "And we're probably going to have to have another appropriations [subcommittee] to figure out how this agency gets funded."

Later he said that he would leave any decision about who should chair such a committee up to Hastert, but noted that he has "put as much work into this issue as any other Member." Other GOPsources point to Portman as another leading contender to chair any potential standing committee on homeland security.

Hastert, meanwhile, was being inundated by requests as well while he engaged in a slow-motion tug-of-war with Gephardt over the past few days about the composition of the committee. The Speaker originally had called for a six-five split on the committee, with a one-seat GOP advantage. Gephardt argued for one less seat, realizing that it would be a political nightmare to be forced to select one rank-and-file Member to join the four top Democratic leaders on the panel. With Pelosi, Frost and Menendez all angling for higher elected leadership office next year, it would be even more difficult to include one of them without naming all three to the panel.

The decision to create a smaller ad hoc panel left no room on the GOP side for Rules Chairman David Dreier (R-Calif.), who many Republicans expected and Democrats feared would play a critical role in the process.

Even though Dreier is not an official Member of the ad hoc panel, House Republican leadership aides believe the Rules Committee will play a key role in shaping the homeland security legislation.

But Democrats are already trying to secure a commitment from House GOP leaders to limit the role the Rules panel will play in the process. "The Rules Committee is a tool to get 218 Republican votes," one Democratic aide warned. "If we're not at the table, it's not bipartisan."

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Davis (Va.) was also disappointed about being excluded from the ad hoc panel, according to GOP leadership aides. Davis has his sights set on the Government Reform Committee gavel when he gives up the top spot on the campaign committee after the November elections. In the past few weeks Davis unsuccessfully lobbied Hastert to hand the homeland security issue over to the Government Reform panel.

"There's just one problem in all of that," one GOP leadership aide said. "It's called the November election."

Davis, however, claimed to have no hard feelings. "I support the Speaker's decisions about this," he said.