Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1993 13:43:39 -0400 (EDT)
From: Larry <[l j k] at [access.digex.net]>
Subject: Report on Congress Issue 5

Report on Congress
Issue 5
8/24/93

FOLEY & DOLE: HEALTH CARE REFORM UNLIKELY TO PASS THIS YEAR

	House Speaker Tom Foley and Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole are
both skeptical that health care reform will be passed by the end of the
year.  Both were predicting that it will take up to a full year to pass a
comprehensive health care reform package. 

	Foley, who appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" (8/22) said "I don't
believe, frankly, that the bill will go over until next year...I think
before the end of this Congress [roughly Nov/Dec '94] we will pass in the
House of Representatives -- I'm not going to speak for the Senate -- major
health care reform."

	Dole had a similar opinion when he appeared on CBS' "Face the
Nation" (8/22), saying "I think [Mr. Clinton] is going to lose a lot of
Democrats on this issue...This is not going to pass, in my view, for
another year, or at least 10 or 11 months."

DOLE STATES HE IS "CLEARLY THINKING" ABOUT '96

	On the same "Face the Nation" interview, Dole said that he is
"clearly thinking about" running for the presidency in 1996, but will wait
until the 1994 midterm elections to make a decision. "I think we wait and
see what happens in 1994.  If we pick up strength in Congress, it may
indicate that '96 might be a good time to run.  If not, there are a lot of
good candidates out there on the Republican side."

SPECULATION GROWS THAT HOUSE MINORITY LEADER BOB MICHEL WILL STEP DOWN IN 1994.

	Speculation is running high that Bob Michel, a moderate Republican
who has served as House Minority Leader since 1981, will not run for
re-election in 1994 or will step aside as Minority Leader in the 104th
Congress. 

	As the House Republican Caucus has grown more conservative over
the past decade, especially with the new freshman class in this Congress,
Michel's position as the Republican Leader has grown shakier.  Some of the
signs that Michel will retire:  his fundraising for next year's election
is 80% lower than it was two years ago and he is spending more money out
of his campaign treasury.  Also, Michel's recent comments to the Peoria
Star Journal that the House GOP caucus is "the most conservative and
antagonistic to the other side" that he had ever seen and that, of the
freshman class "seven are thoughtful moderates, and the other 40 are
pretty darn hard-liners, some of them real-hard line" have not sat well
with the rank and file Republicans who elected him Minority Leader. 

CONSERVATIVE HOUSE DEMOCRATS SEEK FURTHER ENTITLEMENT CUTS

	In order to secure their votes for passage of the Clinton budget
package, conservative House Democrats were promised the opportunity to put
their plans for deficit reduction to a vote. The Washington Post (8/24)
reports that the fiscal conservatives will seek "at least $20 to $40
billion in entitlement spending cuts, over the next five years, when they
get their promised second chance at deficit reduction." An aide to Rep.
Tim Penny, who has been a leader of the fiscally conservative Democrats,
said that the Medicare premiums and Social Security benefits of
higher-income recipients are likely targets. 

DISCHARGE PETITION SECRECY IS UNDER ASSAULT BY GOP, PEROT

	Ross Perot and conservative GOP Representative James Inhofe (R-OK)
are trying to do away with the secrecy requirement which surrounds the
discharge petition, a parliamentary procedure which forces a bill to the
floor of the House for a vote.  [Frequently , bills are killed in the
House of Representatives when a committee chairman refuses to act on it.]
The only way to circumvent the committee's legislative roadblock is to
file a discharge petition with the signatures of a majority of House
Members. 
	
	However, until the petition gets the 218 signatures it needs, all
the the names are kept secret.  This allows Representatives to claim they
support a idea (like term limits), while secretly fighting to keep it from
a vote.  Inhofe and Perot have been arguing that the secrecy provision
should be eliminated so that voters can know where their Representative
really stands on an issue. 

	In the past, discharge petitions have rarely been successful.  The
major exception is the use of the discharge petition to bring the Balanced
Budget Amendment to the floor of the House twice in recent years. 

QUOTABLE

	Al From, president of the Democratic Leadership Council (a group
of centrist Democrats seeking to redefine the Democratic party) told the
Wall Street Journal:  "Whether we expand trade or restrict it is a
critical fault line between new Democrats and old Democrats."  

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**                                                           **
**  Remember, Congress is out of session until 9/7, thus no  **
**  voting records until then. It is actually very quiet     **
**  around here right now, so the report may be a little on  **
**  the boring side this week and next.                      **
**                                                           **
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