Who's On First?

Most incumbents remain in committee leadership positions, but some crucial changes expected 

BY FRANK N. WILNER 

The 48-member incoming congressional freshman class of 21 Republicans and 27 Democrats - a 9 percent turnover of House and Senate incumbents - delivered but six new members with private-sector business experience and none with carrier or shipper freight transportation backgrounds. 

In fact, only three incoming freshmen to the 106th Congress possess even remotely related transportation experience. They are Rep.-elect Grace Napolitano, D-Calif., a former secretarial employee of Ford Motor Co., Rep.-elect Don Sherwood, R-Pa., who owned a Chevrolet dealership, and Rep.-elect Ronnie Shows, D-Miss., a three-term highway commissioner. Interestingly, should Mississippi Republican Wayne Burkes gain a recess appointment to the Surface Transportation Board as predicted, two of three Mississippi highway commissioners will be coming to Washington in 1999. 

Don't be confused by the appearance in the 106th Congress of Rep.-elect Greg Walden, R-Ore., who is not the Greg Walden who held a recess-appointment to the Interstate Commerce Commission and earlier was a Federal Aviation Administration attorney and White House counsel for George Bush. 

Environmentalists eager to banish coal as an energy source may rally round Rep.-elect Mike Pappas, R-N.J., a five-time Jeopardy game-show champion and physicist who holds a patent for a solar energy device. 

As for Sen.-elect John Edwards, D-N.C., railroads should note he's a trial lawyer expected to oppose any tinkering with the Federal Employers Liability Act, which permits injured rail workers to sue their employer for damages and the trial lawyer to share a substantial portion of any award. Edwards did not handle FELA cases, but trial lawyers generally are united in opposition to bringing railroads under no-fault workers' compensation laws. 

The incoming freshman class may possess no hands-on understanding of freight transportation issues, but 12 of the 48 want committee assignments permitting them to make decisions on taking trust funds off-budget, amending the Staggers Rail Act, imposing harbor user charges and liberalizing truck length and weight restrictions. 

Those already expressing an interest in an assignment to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee are Napolitano, Sherwood, Shows, Brian Baird, D-Wash., Evan Bayh, D-Ind., Ken Lucas, D-Ky., Jay Inslee, D-Wash., Gary Miller, R-Calif., and John Sweeney, R-N.Y. Indicating a preference for the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction in that chamber over most freight issues, are Mike Crapo, R-Idaho., Peter Fitzgerald, R-Ill., and Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark. 

Not all will get their wishes. The 75-member Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is expected to be whittled substantially after passage by the 105th Congress earlier this year of a record $217 billion highway-spending bill. Even at its current strength there are only three Democratic and two Republican vacancies. On the Senate Commerce Committee there is but the one vacancy created by the retirement of Sen. Wendell Ford, D-Ky. Other vacancies may occur as current members seek other assignments, but only unionized employers are more diligent than Congress in respecting seniority. 

While most leadership positions on committees with responsibility for transportation issues will remain with incumbents, some crucial changes are expected. 

House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who is relinquishing his seat, likely will be succeeded by Appropriations Committee Chairman Bob Livingston, R-La., who along with Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Frank Wolf, R-Va., has been feuding with House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster, R-Pa. Without informing Gingrich or Shuster, Livingston and Wolf secretly inserted in an omnibus spending bill last month a provision chipping away some of the firewall constructed by Shuster around the Highway Trust Fund that protects nearly 1,900 pet road construction projects from appropriators' sharp pencils. When a furious Shuster learned of the provision's passage he exacted a written promise from Gingrich to amend the offending Livingston-Wolf language. It is unlikely Livingston will honor his predecessor's commitment should he succeed Gingrich. Indeed, Livingston likely will oppose Shuster's efforts to take the aviation trust fund off-budget. The 66-year-old Shuster's legendary power, said a House source, "is beginning to erode." 

Where Wolf - on a crusade to move the Office of Motor Carriers from the Federal Highway Administration to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - winds up is consequential to truckers. Wolf scheduled for February a hearing on his previously defeated OMC proposal and his staff met last week with researchers at the General Accounting Office to develop methodology for a congressionally ordered truck-safety study inspired by Wolf. Should Livingston become House speaker, Wolf may remain chairman of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee rather than seek, as has been rumored, the Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee in place of Sonny Callahan, R-Ala. Wolf does not have sufficient seniority to seek chairmanship of the full Appropriations Committee, which likely will be claimed by Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla. 

An aide to Livingston told Traffic World, "There's not a lot of support for Wolf taking the Foreign Operations subcommittee. He's seen as too doctrinaire and unpredictable. A few years ago, as a subcommittee member, he slipped totally unrelated language into a bill benefiting a constituent involved in a bitter child-custody dispute." 

Among Senate leaders, Harry Reid, D-Nev., an aggressive foe of big trucks, intends to seek the minority whip's post vacated by the retiring Ford. But Reid, who wants to ban triple trailers nationwide, won reelection by fewer than 500 votes and likely faces a recount. Another candidate for minority whip is Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., a vocal critic of the Surface Transportation Board and its decisions adverse to captive rail shippers.