posted July 18, 2003 07:14 PM              

House Democrats Storm Out of Ways and Means Committee
Chairman Calls Capitol Police to Restore Order
By Juliette Eilperin and Albert B. Crenshaw
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, July 18, 2003; 4:06 PM

Months of political tension in the House of Representatives erupted into open warfare today when Democrats stormed out of a Ways and Means Committee session and the panel's chairman called in the Capitol Police.

The day began with a fairly ordinary procedural fight over an otherwise-innocuous pension bill. Committee Democrats complained that the Republican majority had not given them enough time to review a substitute bill that they had received shortly before midnight Thursday. Most of the Democrats then moved to a nearby library to plot strategy after they demanded that Republicans read the legislation line by line.

Infuriated, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) instructed the Capitol Police to remove the Democrats from the ornate library. Republicans said Democrats were being disorderly and did not have the right to occupy the libary.

After the one remaining Ways and Means Democrat got in a spat with a GOP committee member, Thomas dispensed with the reading of the bill altogether and pushed through the legislation, without a single Democratic vote.

The dispute highlights how rapidly relations between Democrats and Republicans have deteriorated in recent months. Virtually shut out from legislating and chafing over repeated procedural slights, House Democrats have adopted combative tactics to draw attention to what they see as Republican heavy-handedness.

By any standards, today represented a low point in the history of congressional comity. Democrats accused the GOP of running a police state; Republicans recounted how one Democratic member of the panel called a Republican colleague "you little fruitcake" in the midst of the standoff.

The blowup occurred as the panel began to mark up a wide-ranging pension bill sponsored by Reps. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.). The changes narrowed the original bill, but retained most of its key provisions.

Ranking Democrat Charles B. Rangel (N.Y.) immediately complained about the timing, saying the measure was not on the House calendar for next week and there was no need to rush.

But Thomas refused to put action off.

At that point, the Democrats objected to a normally perfunctory motion to dispense with the reading of the 200-page original bill and the 91-page substitute. Thomas ruled that reading of the original could be dispensed with since it had been distributed weeks ago, but conceded that the Democrats could demand a line-by-line reading of the substitute.

The reading began, with Thomas interrupting at one point to say loudly, "In the House, the minority can delay. They cannot deny." When the Democrats left for the library, Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-Calif.) stayed behind to prevent the Republicans from obtaining unanimous consent to dispense with the reading.

After several minutes, Thomas again asked unanimous consent to dispense with the reading, and instantly brought down his gavel. Stark said later that he had objected, and Thomas had replied, "You're too late."

Thomas then recognized Portman for an opening statement on the bill. Stark attempted to make a "parliamentary inquiry," and Thomas ignored him. Stark then joined the other Democrats in the nearby room.

With no Democrats present, Thomas and the rest of the Republicans approved the substitute and then the final bill unanimously by voice vote and adjourned.

Committee Democrats, meanwhile, held court with the press next door. Sitting under a gilded ceiling and surrounded by cases of tax books, more than a dozen members recounted how they had been slighted by the GOP.

The lone Capitol Police officer dispatched to the scene surveyed the situation and consulted with his superior, who in turn appealed to the Sergeant at Arms office. Sergeant at Arms representative Don Kellaher slipped into the room less than 45 minutes later, saying his office decided "this is a committee matter" and would take no action.

Rather than concluding the fracas, however, this simply emboldened House Democrats. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) used a point of personal privilege to introduce a resolution on the House floor protesting the incident. This set in motion a heated debate this afternoon, in which each side accused the other of debasing Congress as an institution.

The measure before the committee would make a number of changes to the nation's pension and retirement-saving system, including acceleration of increases in various contribution limits enacted in 2001 and scheduled to be phased in over the next five years. Under it, individuals would be able to contribute an annual maximum to $15,000 to a 401(k) plan and $5,000 to an IRA, beginning next year. People aged 50 and over could contribute even more.

Including these and other provisions, the bill would cost the government $10.3 billion over the next five years.

posted July 18, 2003 11:40 PM            

Has anyone ever told you that you have a real flair for understatement?

posted July 19, 2003 12:38 PM              

Also I'm not that educated in this field. But I try to understand.