Your responsible leaders at work..., page 1

War of words on House floor

War of words on House floor
Democrats outraged that capitol police were called during meltdown at House Ways and Means Committee vote

By Marilyn Geewax

WASHINGTON BUREAU

Friday, July 18, 2003

WASHINGTON � What should have been a routine House Ways and Means Committee vote Friday on a bipartisan pension reform bill turned into a meltdown involving the Capitol police, a near-physical confrontation and accusations of abuse of power.

Outraged Democrats, believing that Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., had threatened to have them arrested, at one point turned for guidance to committee member John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat who was arrested many times in the civil rights protests of the early 1960s.

"In another period, people would use the threat of arrest, accuse people of being disorderly, and that's what Chairman Thomas did," Lewis told his colleagues. "You haven't violated any laws, any rules. Just hold your heads high and keep the faith."

In the end, police left without making arrests. But the incident further soured the partisan feelings in the closely divided House, whose Republican leaders frequently have taken advantage of the rules to force through legislation.

The war of words continued throughout the afternoon on the House floor, where Democrats demanded passage of a resolution disapproving of the committee's actions and nullifying its approval of the pension bill.

Republicans defended Thomas, saying he had no choice but to call in police to head off physical attacks they said appeared imminent from Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark, a 71-year-old Democrat from California.

They said Stark had threatened Rep. Scott McInnis, a 50-year-old Colorado Republican calling him "you little wimp" and "you little fruitcake."

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., insisted that the police had already been called before the confrontation involving Stark and said Republicans were "in denial about their behavior."

In the end, the House voted 170-143 along party lines to reject the Democrats' resolution.

There was no denying the sting of words hurled back and forth by House members who now seem almost literally at each other's throats.

"My friends, this is how tyranny begins," said Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, a Ways and Means Committee member. "It is our responsibility to stand against a police state, to stand in favor of open dialogue rather than to permit a bill to pass with only the votes of one party, and move toward a one-party state."

"I never thought, as a member of Congress, that I would be threatened with arrest in the library of the Ways and Means Committee," Lewis said during the House debate.

While Democrats were alleging "dictatorial behavior" by Thomas, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said that "had it been me, I too would have made a phone call (to the sergeant at arms) because I did not know if (Stark) could control either his emotions or his bodily functions at this point."

After Democratic objections, Brady asked to have his "bodily functions" remark withdrawn.

The donnybrook began in the morning when the Ways and Means Committee met to consider legislation changing rules governing pensions and retirement savings plans. The bill, sponsored by Rob Portman, R-Ohio and Rep. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., is a complex bill dealing with rules for pension funding and 401(k) savings plans.

Democrats were angered because they said the chairman's final version of the 91-page bill did not get delivered to their staffs until nearly midnight Thursday. They said they needed an opportunity to study the complex legislation before voting Friday morning.

When Thomas refused to delay the vote, Democrats forced a lengthy, line-by-line reading of the bill. Leaving Stark behind to block Republicans from obtaining unanimous consent to proceed, the Democrats left to discuss strategy in an library adjacent to the committee chamber.

It was then, they said, that Capitol police officers appeared, saying they were responding to a report of a disturbance. Staffers for the Democrats said the report had been filed by Thomas's office.

With Democrats out of the committee room, Thomas again asked for unanimous consent to dispense with the reading of the pension bill and brought down his gavel. Stark later said he had objected, but Thomas told him he was too late.

Thomas then pushed ahead with a voice vote to approve the bill, and the meeting adjourned.

Though the committee room itself was quickly emptying, Democrats continued to sit around a conference table in the adjacent room. The Democrats asked the police whether they would be arrested and stood their ground. Some, such as Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., complained of "dictatorial behavior" that was making the House dysfunctional.

Finally a representative of the House sergeant at arms office arrived to say there would be no action by police because "this is a committee matter."

The dispute presaged a contentious floor debate as soon as next week on the $50 billion pension bill, which contains several items of top importance to business groups and workers alike.

It would eventually raise the age at which individuals must start withdrawing money from their retirement accounts from 70 1/2 to 75, and it would let people begin making annual contributions of $5,000 in their individual retirement accounts and $15,000 in their 401(k) accounts next year.

The bill would also set corporate bond rates as the benchmark to calculate corporate pension contributions, rejecting a Bush administration formula that might have required companies to make larger cash contributions sooner to underfunded pension plans.

An amendment that would have provided airlines with pension-funding relief did not come up at the tense meeting.

[Edited on 19-7-2003 by Thorfinn Skullsplitter]