Final Payments

Congress girds for a new era

With adjournment looming, the 96th Congress moved last week to set itself up for the 97th and Ronald Reagan's White House. Among House Republicans, the preparation took the form of electing Illinois' Robert Michel as minority leader over Michigan's Guy Vander Jagt; obviously, the feeling was that the new President's legislative program stood a better chance against the Democratic majority under Michel's brand of amicable persuasion. Republicans also elected New York's Jack Kemp as chairman of the party's conference, or caucus, and Mississippi's Trent Lott as party whip.

In selecting their new leadership, House Republicans were trying to downplay their traditional image as the party of reaction and obstruction. Thanking his colleagues for electing him, Michel said: "We've got to be affirmative, forward looking. The bottom line is enacting the Reagan program." He warned Democrats against trying to "gut" Reagan's proposals. If that happens, said he, "we will have confrontation."

If Michel has his way, confrontation will be kept to a minimum. Stinging in partisan debate on the floor, he is conciliatory in the cloakroom, putting together packages and deals. Michel and Tennessee's Howard Baker, the new Senate majority leader, will have unaccustomed Republican muscle. In the next Congress, the G.O.P. can claim 192 of the House's 435 members, as well as 53 of 100 Senators.

Meanwhile, House Democrats voted to keep the Rules Committee, which determines access to the floor for almost all legislation, overwhelmingly Democratic. They also nominated Thomas (Tip) O'Neill of Massachusetts for re-election as Speaker, as expected.

Before ending its session and heading for adjournment, the 96th Congress dealt with a flurry of bills. The legislators dumped an auto safety measure and dropped a fair housing enforcement bill; they dithered over whether to approve a $10,000-a-year pay raise for themselves (to $70,000) and pay hikes for the top 34,000 employees of the Federal Government. Senate Republicans gave up trying to ram through an anti-school busing measure, but the matter is not settled. Said Busing Foe Jesse Helms of North Carolina: "Forty days from now we'll have a new President." And a new and markedly different Congress.

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