Congress: Showdown Ahead

Driving toward adjournment by mid-November, the 95th Congress last week was embroiled in the toughest struggle of its ten-month opening session. Contentious, unpredictable and highly independent of the new man in the White House, the lawmakers faced a politically unpleasant task: fashioning an energy bill designed to reduce the nation's dangerous dependence on imported oil--a piece of legislation likely to take money out of just about everybody's pocket. Their situation was aptly described by Indiana's John Brademas, the House Democratic whip: "It is tough enough with separation of powers and the absence of disciplined parties to enact legislation when there is some national consensus. It is really difficult when half the people don't even believe there is a problem."

Congress had originally set mid-October as its adjournment date. But that slipped by as the legislators faced an agenda overburdened by an often impatient, deadline-minded President. Thus, they found themselves last week still on Capitol Hill, spending harried hours pushing through major bills and tying up loose ends. To keep the Social Security system solvent, the House passed a measure that would triple taxes by 1987--and will alienate a lot of voters long before that. Whether the Senate would go along--or even face up to the unpopular issue-- before adjournment was questionable. The House also served bold notice that it would not even consider a routine military-aid appropriation for South Korea unless the Seoul government began to cooperate with the congressional investigators of influence peddling on Capitol Hill.

But the showdown centered on energy. Having got most of what he wanted from the House, the President had seen his program all but cut to pieces by a fractious Senate. But Jimmy Carter finally won a major victory there last week when Senate liberals pushed through approval of a "use" tax, which would heavily penalize certain utilities and large firms that refused to shift from natural gas and oil to coal. The 51-to-37 vote was a defeat for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Russell Long (see following story), who has emerged as a pivotal figure in the battle. But it was only a temporary defeat. Immediately after approving the use tax, the Senate voted to give Long almost complete freedom to push some of his pet energy ideas--most notably huge tax benefits to the oil and gas industries to encourage production--in the House-Senate conference committee that is trying to reconcile differences between the two chambers.

Both the use tax and Long's tax proposals have yet to be weighed by the conference committee. The House and Senate conferees were still dithering last week with peripheral conflicts, like whether new gas-guzzling cars should be heavily taxed, as Carter would prefer, or totally banned, as the Senate has voted. They have yet to tackle the more complex and crucial energy issues.

Perhaps unwisely, Carter has insisted that both he and the Congress should have their first-year performance in domestic matters judged almost solely on the energy legislation. The tumultuous tone and tactics of the struggle--including a precedent-smashing Senate filibuster and a whip-cracking maneuver by Majority Leader Robert Byrd to end it--have reinforced the public perception of a wrangling and perhaps even ineffectual Congress.

That impression has been strengthened still more by the fact that the lawmakers have pushed into 1978--an election year for all Congressmen and 33 Senators--some of the rougher fights: Panama Canal treaty ratification, welfare reform, tax reform. Says Massachusetts Democrat Gerry Studds: "We don't really have a great deal to show so far. The big issues have either not been addressed or are unresolved."

Yet that view may be more than a little unfair. Carter has pitched an extraordinary number of big, Complex, politically divisive proposals at Congress, and it is no surprise that the lawmakers have struck out on a number of them. At his press conference last week, when asked about increasing criticism of his performance, Carter chose to interpret it as praise for his heady pace. "I remember in this room last May," he said with a smile, "someone asked me if my Administration was all style and no substance. Lately the criticisms have been that there's too much substance and not enough style." Yet the much-maligned 95th has had a productive first session, and it stands a good chance of atoning in 1978 for some of its miscues.

Part of the 95th's problem is that it breezed into Washington with unrealistically high expectations--a display of naivete not confined to Capitol Hill. After eight quarrelsome years of Republican Presidents and Democratic majorities in Congress, there were high hopes of a new spirit of harmony between the White House and the Congress. Instead, Carter and the legislators were jaw to jaw from the very outset.

In some respects, the 95th is unique, and that has a great deal to do with its problems. It was elected in the psychological aftermath of the Viet Nam War and Watergate--wrenching historical episodes in which a complacent legislature failed until too late to question excesses of Executive authority. Thus Congress bristled when Carter indicated that he would decide what was best for the country and that Congress's role in accepting (or rejecting) those decisions was more a frustrating nuisance than a necessary part of democratic government.

Both chambers began the session by reforming their ways of doing business. The Senate streamlined its committee structure; it also served notice that tyrannical committee chairmen, once chosen on the basis of seniority alone, could be replaced. The House similarly undermined entrenched committee bosses and shifted power to the Speaker. Democrat Tip O'Neill used that leverage to become the strongest Speaker since "Uncle" Joe Cannon, some 65 years ago. Both House and Senate also adopted new ethics rules limiting the outside income that members were allowed to earn.

The two bodies have passed a series of major bills. Among them: the granting of broad presidential authority to reorganize the Executive Branch and to create a Department of Energy, the first Cabinet addition since 1966; a quick tax cut to stimulate the economy; a strip-mining bill; new clean-air provisions; increased price supports on wheat and corn; a hefty increase in the minimum wage; a limited program of public works jobs. In foreign affairs, Congress voted against automatically cutting off U.S. aid to nations that violate the basic rights of their citizens; it left these decisions in the President's hands. In matters of defense, it went along with Carter's unexpected decision not to produce the B-1 bomber.

If Congress failed to face up to some other heavy challenges, it was not always to blame. Senator Byrd did the President a favor in postponing Senate action on ratifying the Panama Canal treaties, since the required two-thirds majority was not yet in sight. Welfare reform got bogged down in the long debate over energy. With Carter's assent, tax reform too was put off until at least next year.

Partly because of inexperience in dealing with Congress, Carter and his aides were handed some sharp rebukes. The President's backing of public financing of congressional campaigns was given short shrift by legislators who were elected under the present system--and like it just fine. His effort to pay off a campaign promise to maritime unions by fixing the percentage of imported oil that must be carried in U.S. ships was scuttled. Congress bowed to all-out oil industry lobbying and killed a plan to emphasize environmental considerations in offshore oil leases. Carter wanted to shelve 23 major water projects dear to the lawmakers' local interests, but he had to settle for killing nine and curtailing four--still a sharp break from the tradition of unstoppable pork barrel construction.

How does the record of the 95th rate?

Tip O'Neill calls it "the greatest of any elected President for his first year in office since 1933, when Franklin Roosevelt was President." But O'Neill is really passing judgment on his own work. John Rhodes, the House Republican leader, says that from a G.O.P. perspective the House's performance rates "about three on a scale of one to ten." But he concedes that from the Democrats' point of view, "I'd have to give them a seven or eight." Overall, Rhodes' seven or eight seems closer to the mark than his partisan three.

Those assessments could change considerably depending on how the energy brouhaha is settled. Whatever the outcome, Carter has already shown signs that his dealings with Congress in 1978 will be more deft. Having failed initially to lobby the Senate effectively for his energy proposals, he has been making the right moves as the showdown approaches. He has been inviting key Democratic leaders to the White House and telephoning others who can help. "There has been a gradual metamorphosis," says Brademas about meetings between the President and congressional leaders. "At first there was a reserve; everyone was taking each other's measure. Now these meetings are very pointed, very frank. Wisecracks flow back and forth, and it's all in the family." Adds Brademas about the President: "He's learning that the left hand washes the right hand and they both wash the face."

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