The Reflecting Pool
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A funny chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee? NCSL committee officers take a stand. And where is the No Child Left Behind Act?
By Carl Tubbesing
October 18, 2007
Chairman Rangel’s Message
“If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times, as the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, I don’t expect to be treated any differently than any other world leader.” That’s the way Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel began his remarks yesterday to 19 New York Democratic state senators who were in our nation’s capital for a day of meetings with the Empire State’s congressional delegation. If you’ve heard the engaging Mr. Rangel speak before, then you know that wasn’t the end of the one-liners. Taking a gentle jab at the one Barack Obama supporter in the room, Mr. Rangel noted that “he’d be able to work with any new President, no matter who she is.” And then there was the one about the criticism he’s taken for wanting to spend $64,000 on a painting of himself to hang in the Ways and Means hearing room. “What folks don’t know is that the painting was a compromise,” he observed. “I wanted a mural.” And then there was the one about. . . Well, you get the idea.
The Chairman’s more serious message was about how important it is for state legislators and members of Congress to work together. He congratulated Minority Leader Malcolm Smith and the other members of yesterday’s delegation for coming to town to lobby on SCHIP and homeland security funding. The 36-year veteran of the U.S. House said that members of Congress and state legislators represent the same constituents and noted that they can represent them more effectively when they coordinate their efforts. He told a story—way too insider for this non-New Yorker to follow—about Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell and reapportionment to emphasize how effective the redistricting process can be in facilitating communication between state legislatures and U.S. House members.
Over the past two decades, state legislative leaders around the country have employed various methods to communicate with their congressional delegations. In the late 1990s, Ohio legislative leaders piggy-backed on NCSL meetings in Washington, D.C. to spend an afternoon with the Ohio members of Congress. The Kentucky legislature used to invite its delegation to a retreat held in a Kentucky state park. In the 1980s, Iowa legislative leaders regularly came to town to meet with their congressional members. In the mid-1980s, California Speaker Willie Brown initiated an annual trip to Washington by a large group of California legislators. Those trips, though less frequent than they once were, still happen occasionally. In recent years, the leaders of the Florida legislature have tried it both ways. They’ve invited their members of Congress to the Sunshine State for a day of discussions and they’ve traveled to our nation’s capital for a day or two of engagements with their delegation.
These endeavors give state legislators and members of Congress the opportunity to communicate about common issues and to develop strategies for moving legislation of particular importance to the state. They are a great way for state legislators to remind their delegations about their broader concerns about state-federal relations—their opposition to unfunded federal mandates, their frustrations with federal preemption of state authority, and so on. The effectiveness of these meetings is often dependent on the complicated political and personal relations between state legislators and members of Congress. In many cases, the members of Congress once served in the state legislature, so the legislators sitting across the table may be former colleagues. In some cases, their districts may overlap, perhaps making them allies back home or, more troubling to the member of Congress, potential opponents in a future campaign. And, as Chairman Rangel noted yesterday, the decennial reapportionment process can be an overt or implied tool for reminding members of Congress of their dependence on the good or not-so-good will of their colleagues back home.
New NCSL Committee Officers Convene
NCSL uses these same connections in our work in Washington on behalf of state legislatures. Two weeks ago, the new officers of the NCSL Standing Committees came to town to plan the year. NCSL staff arranged meetings for many of the 75 legislators and staff with members of Congress, congressional staff and administration officials. Texas Senator Leticia Van de Putte, NCSL’s immediate past president, got 15 minutes with California Congresswoman Linda Sanchez to encourage her to support streamlined sales tax legislation, one of our top three or four lobbing priorities. (Congresswoman Sanchez is a critical player on this issue because she is the chair of the subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee with jurisdiction over the streamlined bill.) Officers of the Budgets and Revenue and Transportation committees, led by Oregon Senator Richard Devlin and New Mexico Representative Dan Silva, had a half dozen meetings with Hill staff to voice their frustrations with the Real ID law. Officers of the Labor and Economic Development Committee, with North Carolina Representative Philip Frye in the lead, met with Ways and Means Committee staff on international trade issues and had a surprise, impromptu discussion with the ubiquitous Chairman Rangel. Officers of the Agriculture, Environment and Energy Committee had a meeting with the intergovernmental relations staff from the Agriculture and Energy departments and the Environmental Protection Agency.
No Child Left Behind: Moving or Not?
One of the many unanswered questions for the remaining weeks of the 2007 session of Congress is whether the House, Senate and President will be able to agree on reauthorizing legislation for No Child Left Behind. California Congressman George Miller, Chairman of the House Education Committee, has circulated his draft of new legislation. Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, a key player when No Child Left Behind passed in 2001, is said to be a week or so away from releasing his version. The White House is working behind the scenes with Mr. Miller and Senator Kennedy to craft a bill they all can live with.
Delaware Representative Donna Stone, NCSL’s President, responded to Chairman Miller’s draft with a letter that compares his proposed changes to the recommendations developed by NCSL’s No Child Left Behind Task Force in 2004. Representative Stone’s letter concludes that Mr. Miller’s draft addresses the problems raised in our report without solving them. On October 4, Representative Stone, Senator Van de Putte and North Dakota Representative Rae Ann Kelsch met with White House and Department of Education officials to discuss the Miller draft. Although NCSL and the administration have frequently disagreed about No Child Left Behind, Representative Stone and her colleagues were encouraged by the tenor and substance of the early October meeting.
NCSL has also been a staunch leader in the opposition to H.R. 811, the voting paper trail bill. Carl discusses the bad news NCSL received and where the issue currently stands in the latest edition of The Thicket.