State, Region Fret Over Lack of Pull In GOP Congress
By HOWARD FINE
Staff Reporter
With Republicans back in control of Congress, it’s nervous time for California and Los Angeles.
A survey of politicians, lobbyists and consultants confirms the obvious: that heavily Democratic California will be losing considerable clout in Washington, and that the loss will be reflected in how federal funds get divvied out.
Such is the unsettling prospect for state and local governments facing a host of problems, from an imploding public health care network in Los Angeles to staving off a potential water crisis. With budget deficits likely to top $20 billion for the second consecutive year, California does not have the resources to avert these crises on its own.
To be sure, several Republican members of the California delegation hold powerful posts most notably Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Bakersfield, who chairs the powerful House Ways & Means Committee but there is little to suggest that they will be especially sympathetic to the needs of an urban center like Los Angeles.
Up to now, the White House has hardly showered attention on California since President Bush was clobbered in the state two years ago. Some believe that the administration will be even less willing to pay attention to the state now that Democrats appear to have swept statewide offices.
Furthermore, Gov. Gray Davis, who emerged as one of the few veteran Democrats left standing after Nov. 5, is an automatic potential presidential candidate in 2004.
“I don’t see anyone in the administration or among the Republicans doing anything to help Gray Davis,” acknowledged GOP consultant Ken Khachigian.
That puts the onus on Congress, where the outlook is, at best, mixed.
Power debate wanes
The chief victim of partisan politics may be the billions of dollars in energy refunds sought by California from power companies the state accuses of gouging during the power crisis two years ago. Davis has tried to fix the blame on power companies like Enron Corp. and Duke Energy.
Democrats in the Senate, led by Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, had been holding hearings on alleged price manipulation by these and other power companies. It’s widely believed that when the Republicans assume control of the Senate later this month, those hearings will be terminated.
“The Bush administration has not been supportive of our efforts to hold the energy companies accountable for their actions and I don’t expect that to change with Republicans controlling the Senate,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer. “We’re just going to have to continue the fight.”
But with the hearings on hold, that fight may prove futile.
“There will be no one to light the fire under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to pursue this,” said a Davis administration official.
Other areas could be at risk, too, chiefly in federal matching funds for Medicaid and other health programs. Funding for the state’s water supply system may also be on the block. Even much-cherished transportation funds may be held back, despite the fact that Bush’s transportation secretary, Norm Minetta, is a Californian.
Without these funds, the state may be forced to dig deeper into its own empty pockets.
With the state’s two Democratic senators now in the minority, moving California and L.A.’s agenda forward will be more difficult, especially when it comes to federal reimbursements and matching funds. “We have a big problem with this President for reimbursements to the states, and not just to California,” Boxer said.
Boxer, though, downplayed the notion that being in the minority party means California will get shut out of federal funds.
“If California is discriminated against, that discrimination won’t last long,” she said. “Even as a member of the minority party, the rules of the Senate allow myself and Sen. Feinstein to block measures of importance to other states and we’re prepared to do that until that discrimination ends. I did that two years ago when we in California wanted to get some judicial nominations through and it worked.”
Others also stressed that the outlook for California is not that dire. “When a client now asks me what do we do in Washington, I tell them, ‘You have all kinds of friends in Washington, and they are Republicans in our state delegation,'” said Khachigian.
Looking to the House
Indeed, the power to control the agenda now lies in the hands of California’s Republican legislators in the House.
“You’ve got to concentrate on the House side, not the Senate side, to get anything done,” said political consultant Allan Hoffenblum.
California Democrats have one piece of good news to cling to: the elevation of Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, to House Minority Leader, one of the two top Democratic positions in Washington. Pelosi will be a participant in face-to-face negotiations with Bush over budget and other key policy matters.
“She will get the chance to make California’s case directly to the President in those meetings,” said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, senior scholar at the School of Policy, Planning and Development at USC. “But that’s not going to work unless she has behind her a united, bipartisan California delegation.”
California long has boasted the nation’s largest state delegation to Congress, now 55 strong. But more often than not, that delegation has been divided along partisan lines, rarely speaking with one voice.
“It’s more important now than ever to have unity on some of these key issues like transportation funding for California and health care dollars,” said the Davis administration official.
California’s biggest enemy may not be partisan politics. With war looming against Iraq and a consensus that more needs to be spent on homeland security, there likely will be less federal funds available for non-security domestic spending programs for all states.
“It’s the old guns vs. butter debate, and in these times, with this administration, the guns may win out,” said Reggie Todd, chief legislative advocate for the County of Los Angeles in Washington. “That’s our biggest problem.”
But even so, California could benefit as more contracts flow in to aerospace and defense firms and for beefed up homeland security measures.
“There’s been a shift, of course, but it’s not as dramatic in terms of a loss of clout for California that some are making it out to be,” said Todd.
