Congressional/20″/dt1st/mark2nd
GOES W/RACE SIDEBAR ON P. 9 PLEASE SEE DUMMY
By DANIEL TAUB
Staff Reporter
California’s often dysfunctional Congressional delegation is showing some signs of unity these days.
“Where they are making progress is on projects that are locating here in California,” said Fred Main, senior vice president of the California Chamber of Commerce, a group representing businesses across the state.
Main and others cite the delegation’s success in getting a large portion of funds from the recently approved Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, also known as TEA-21.
Over the next six years, California will receive $2.4 billion a year, or 9.2 percent of the total transportation dollars distributed under the plan. Just keeping that percentage roughly the same as under the previous plan is considered a victory because the former plan was approved when former Rep. Norm Mineta, D-San Jose, chaired the Surface Transportation Subcommittee in the House. No current California delegate wields such power.
Over the last two years, the delegation also is credited with getting federal funds for imprisoning criminals who are illegal immigrants, getting a tax credit for companies doing research and development in California, and stopping legislation that would have capped Medicaid dollars coming to the state.
On some bills, the entire 52-member delegation in the House has voted together. On others, they have all signed letters to the White House or other government branches.
That act alone being able to get all the representatives to agree on a letter is seen as a major accomplishment, said Tim Ransdell, executive director of the California Institute for Federal Policy Research, a Washington-based non-profit organization that tracks federal legislation affecting the state.
“In Texas, it would not be big news, but it’s a first for a state as diverse as California,” Ransdell said.
Ransdell and others cite the working relationship of Reps. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, and Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Los Angeles, for helping the delegation coalesce. Lewis, dean of the Republican delegation, and Roybal-Allard, head of the state’s Democratic delegation, meet regularly and each have staff members devoted to forming coalitions between Republicans and Democrats.
Roybal-Allard said that when she held a meeting of the California delegation to discuss federal utility legislation in 1996 a meeting where more than 40 delegation members attended it signaled a change.
“I was extremely surprised when we had our first bipartisan meeting,” she said. “We had several senior members who stood up and said it was the first since coming to Congress that this many members had been together in a room to talk about a California issue.”
Ransdell and others note, however, that the delegation remains divided in many areas.
For example, the delegation did not form a united front on a plan to lease the former Long Beach Naval Base to the China Ocean Shipping Co. Delegation members such as Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, opposed giving the foreign company access to a former military base, while other delegates supported Cosco’s presence, citing the economic benefits it would bring to the state. Federal legislation eventually blocked Cosco from leasing the base.
“It’s not only ideological on a Democratic vs. Republican level, but in the Republican party there were disagreements,” said Sherry Greenberg, executive director of the California Democratic congressional delegation. “That is something that happens. We have 52 members. It’s a huge state, and we’re not a monolith.”
Even given the delegation’s increased ability to work together, some observers say it still lacks power primarily because more than half of its members are Democrats, who do not currently control the House.
“You have a lot of senior Democrats,” said Tony Quinn, a Sacramento-based Republican analyst and a consultant to the National Federation of Independent Business. “But being in the minority, it is totally meaningless.”
