NH delegation reviews Congress  

By Katherine Bonamici

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The 106th Congress is still not complete, and won't be until some time in December, but with most of the session behind them members of the New Hampshire delegation had lots to say about how they feel the session has gone.

In interviews over the last several weeks, three of New Hampshire's four members of Congress discussed what they achieved in their committees and what they hope to accomplish in the 107th Congress, starting in January.

This has been a "pragmatic session," said Congressman Charles Bass. "A session where we've been able to recognize some real accomplishments. It hasn't been philosophically oriented; it's been more oriented to getting the job done, getting the people's work done."

But despite Bass' assertions, many of the accomplishments he and other members said they were proudest of didn't actually make it into law.

"We passed a Social Security earnings limit repeal, but the president vetoed it," Bass said. "We passed a prescription drug benefit [which was not passed by the Senate]. Every day that goes by that we don't have a prescription drug plan passed and signed into law by the president is a day that seniors pay more for drugs. I regret the fact that it's tied up in the Senate, I regret the fact that the political process has overtaken the policy initiatives that need to be completed, but this body passed a prescription drug plan that should be in law right now."

Congressman John E. Sununu was also disappointed by the failure to make the prescription drug benefit law, and blamed it on partisanship by President Bill Clinton. "A bipartisan commission proposed it to Clinton," Sununu said, "but President Clinton decided to ignore the majority of members on that commission."

Sununu expressed further frustration over another piece of legislation that met opposition in the White House. "A second area where we fell short," he continued, "was that we failed in getting the president to sign an end to the marriage tax penalty. The president's veto of that bill and his ability to get 15 Democrats to flip-flop and support his veto is the only thing that prevented us from making it law."

But Bass says that despite frustrating setbacks and partisan disagreements, "I don't regret anything; I don't look at my job that way. I'm proud of our leadership. I think [House Speaker] Denny Hastert has been a real workhorse, [especially] when you consider the fact that we had a six-vote majority and some days we had a 30-vote minority depending on who's in and out of town. It's really quite extraordinary that the business of the House works as well as it does. Any six Republicans decide they want to leave town and the business of this body comes to an end."

"The most important accomplishment was balancing the budget without using a penny of the Social Security surplus for the third year in a row," Sununu said. "We have worked very hard to control the growth of government spending and enable us to pay down the government debt, and it set us on the track to pay down $600 billion in debt over a four-year period. That's a historic achievement."

Sununu also said he was pleased with his success in getting money for New Hampshire projects. "I had a bill that I wrote signed into law, protecting 12 miles of the Lamprey River," he said. "It was added to the Wild and Scenic Rivers Program, and protects it from federal initiatives that would impact its character. I also brought two million dollars to the town of Epping for a new wastewater treatment facility to clean up discharges into the Lamprey and improve the quality of runoff into the river."

Senator Bob Smith was pleased with the accomplishments of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which he chaired.

"We [got] a lot of funding for projects in New Hampshire and New England that are going to deal with environmental restoration-probably about 75 million dollars worth-that are going to help with Connecticut River studies, Merrimac River studies," Smith said. "Being chairman of the committee helps you get attention."

But on other issues, "a lot of the agenda of the Republicans was blocked," Smith said. "Taking the partisanship out, could we have done more? Yes. Have we done a lot? Yes."

Smith said he doesn't think voters chose a divided Congress and White House on purpose. "I think people go in and vote for any number of reasons," he said. "I think as a result that's the way it turns out. I don't think people make this decision consciously. On the other side, we have not had a Republican House, Senate, President since 1954; we have had several Democrat President, House and Senates since 1954. From a partisan perspective it'd be nice to give us a shot at it and see how we do. I think, from my perspective, we could accomplish more for the people if we had that opportunity."

"The term gridlock, really, is the minority saying they don't like what the majority is doing, so they use military tactics to block it," Smith added. "Whoever the minority party is does that because they want to stand up for what they believe, and that's fair enough."

Smith's goals for next session range from work on national missile defense on the Armed Services Committee to discussing hybrid cars in Environment and Public Works. He also says he wants to see more attention paid to education. "Hey, Wake up! Hello? People aren't happy with the public schools," he said, "So let's change how they operate the public schools. With 25 years as a parent, six years as a school board member and six years as a teacher, I think I can speak with some experience."

Meanwhile, Bass hopes to work on an agenda "that is a combination of debt reduction, tax relief, special education, Medicare and defense. On the non-budget side one of my interests will be campaign finance reform. I'm also going to be pushing biannual budgets and appropriations again. I'm always frustrated when Congress is preoccupied by budget problems. We spend 90 percent of our time working out the budget-we wouldn't be here right now if we had biannual budgets."

Sununu, who is on the Budget Committee, focuses much of his attention on fiscal responsibility, and realizes that some votes don't necessarily make sense to the people back home. "I worry about listening to voters in the district and understanding their concerns. I recognize that every voter can't agree with me on every issue, but since I live in the district and am home every week, traveling around New Hampshire, voters understand that I enjoy hearing different sides of an issue, and that when I cast a vote, it's a thoughtful and well informed vote."

Sununu said he plans to "build on his platform of fiscal responsibility" next session, working to strengthen Social Security and Medicare, "make the tax code more fair," and "fund right priorities," including special education, veterans health care and investing in scientific and medical research.

Senator Judd Gregg was unavailable to be interviewed for this story.