Pelosi Global Warming Plan Is Latest Tussle With Panel Chiefs

By Laura Litvan

Jan. 19 (Bloomberg) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to create a new congressional panel to address global warming and energy independence, the latest in a series of moves that have created tension with some veteran Democratic committee chairmen.

The new panel will hold hearings and recommend legislation, drawing attention to the need to curb emissions of climate-changing gases, Pelosi said. It would have limited capabilities, lacking the power to approve measures for consideration by the full House.

The new Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming would encroach on the jurisdiction of at least three existing congressional panels and comes two weeks after Pelosi surprised party veterans by imposing six-year term limits on panel chairmen.

Tension between Pelosi and some of the Democratic chairmen is ``palpable,'' said House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat. ``You can feel it.''

Representative John Dingell, who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said on Jan. 16 that the new panel ``won't prosper if I have anything to say about it.''

Pelosi said she wants all committees with some jurisdiction to work together by July 4 to craft legislation designed to curb dependence on foreign oil.

Henry Waxman

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, a California Democrat, said he would prefer that Pelosi let existing committees handle global warming and energy legislation, though he understands her desire to draw more attention to the issue. Waxman, the No. 2 Democrat on Dingell's committee, said he hasn't decided how he will vote when the full House considers whether to create the new panel.

Pelosi's moves suggest a speaker who will continue one aspect of the just-ended Republican era when top leaders such as Speaker Newt Gingrich and Majority Leader Tom DeLay curbed the powerful fiefdoms of House committee chairmen, said John Pitney, a professor of political science at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. It's a strategy that does come with risk, Pitney said.

``You push members too far and they push back,'' he said.

Pelosi, 66, who made history this month when the House elected her the first female speaker in U.S. history, presides over a group of septuagenarian and octogenarian House panel heads known in the Capitol as the ``Old Bulls,'' many of whom represent an old guard returning to power after 12 years in the minority.

John Dingell

Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, is 80 and celebrated his 52nd year in Congress this month. He is the oldest of at least eight lawmakers over age 70 chairing panels. Dingell presided over the Energy and Commerce panel from 1981 to 1994 and was regarded as the most powerful chairman of that Democratic-led era.

Pelosi's decision to create the new global warming panel may give an advantage to lawmakers such as Massachusetts Representative Edward Markey, 60, a member of Dingell's committee who favors legislation requiring a 4 percent annual improvement in automobile fuel economy standards. Dingell previously has sided with the auto industry in opposing higher standards.

Creation of the new committee would be the second time Dingell has lost a power battle since Democrats won control of the House and Senate in the Nov. 7 elections. He tried unsuccessfully to persuade Pelosi to return to his panel jurisdiction over the Securities and Exchange Commission, which it had until Republicans shuffled committee responsibilities in 2001.

Strained Relationship

Dingell has a strained relationship with Pelosi. He backed Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland over Pelosi when House Democrats chose a Democratic whip in October 2001. Pelosi, who won that race, backed Representative Lynn Rivers when she challenged Dingell in a Michigan Democratic primary election in 2002.

Pelosi said she is sure she will have ``broad support'' in the House for her plan. Her relationships with committee chairmen aren't strained over this or other matters, she said.

``It is a natural course of events for chairmen to protect their committee turf, and I respect that,'' Pelosi said as she left a press conference yesterday. ``I've asked them to have the hearings, write the bills and come forward with their ideas so we can all have better policies for a better future.''

Barney Frank

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Pelosi is ``exactly right'' in creating the new select panel. Frank, 66, said he has no concerns about the six-year limits for chairmen and quipped that some of the ``Old Bulls'' as a practical matter may never lose their gavels because of term limits.

``I have been very taken with the faith some of my older colleagues have in the quality of American medicine,'' Frank said.

Conyers, 77, said he and other chairmen were angry that they didn't know the term limit was part of a package of rules governing House operations that was approved Jan. 4.

``At this point, it doesn't have any impact,'' Conyers said of the tension between the chairmen and Pelosi. ``But it's not concluded yet, either.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Litvan in Washington at llitvan@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: January 19, 2007 00:05 EST

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