Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411140052
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The last time the Republicans commanded a majority on Capitol Hill, Bob Goodlatte was in diapers.
When a new Congress gavels itself to order in January, the 42-year-old Goodlatte will be part of the Republican majority - with a smidgen of seniority, to boot.
The congressman from Roanoke, like many of his colleagues around the country, is still having some trouble getting used to the idea.
Like when he outlines the political dynamics of nursing federal funding for a new interstate highway from a key transportation committee, a project that took up much of his freshman term, Goodlatte says, "The players have changed a little bit, but Nick Rahall [from West Virginia] will probably be the ranking minority member ... '' Goodlatte stops himself at the mention of a Democrat as a minority member. "Gee, that sounds strange."
What will the Republican majority mean for Goodlatte? Even he admits that's hard to tell - at least for now. In his first term, he discovered the extent to which Republicans were locked out of the legislative process.
"In the previous years, we'd get through meeting, then sit around and wait for the Democrats to tell us what they were going to do - and then we'd complain about it."
Now he'll be part of the group that's running the show.
For Goodlatte's constituents, that's something new. The 6th District is not accustomed to having a congressman so closely aligned with the leadership of the majority party in the House.
Goodlatte's predecessor, Jim Olin, was part of a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives for 10 years. But Olin, with his interest in deficit reduction, was often at odds with the leadership of his own party - which frustrated his attempts to gain a seat on the House Budget Committee.
Olin's two predecessors, Caldwell Butler and Richard Poff, spent all or most of their tenures as Republicans in a Democratic-controlled House. One has to go back to Poff's first term, in 1953-54, the last time the GOP ran the House, to find a 6th District congressman philosophically in tune with the House majority.
With just one term behind him, Goodlatte may not have much seniority, but he's clearly more in the mainstream of his party than Olin ever was. He has also demonstrated a penchant for making friends in high places.
In the past two years, Goodlatte has seen to it that the three top Republicans in Washington - Newt Gingrich of Georgia, who'll be the new Speaker of the House; Dick Armey of Texas, who'll be the new House majority leader; and Bob Dole of Kansas, who'll regain his post as Senate majority leader - have visited the 6th District.
Goodlatte is especially tight with Armey, who has now made two trips to Western Virginia - and who was on the phone to Goodlatte last week after the big GOP sweep. Goodlatte also has become a close ally of Tom Bliley of Richmond, who'll assume the chairmanship of a key House subcommittee on health issues.
In addition, a GOP presidential prospect, Jack Kemp, is scheduled to appear with Goodlatte at an event in Harrisonburg next month, the second time in three years that Kemp has visited the 6th at Goodlatte's behest.
"He's very well positioned," Virginia Tech political analyst Bob Denton says of Goodlatte. "The Republican leadership knows who he is, so he'll have their ear. In the next cycle, he could become an important voice. I think he's positioned to become more visible within Virginia and even nationally."
The in-state aspect of that is clear already. Spared an opponent this fall, Goodlatte spent much of his time campaigning for other Republican congressional candidates around the Old Dominion.
For Goodlatte, the first big decision is what to do about his committee assignments: Agriculture and Judiciary.
He's mulling over whether to make a bid for one of the new Republican seats on the Ways and Means Committee, the House's marquee panel. The catch is, if he succeeds, he would have to give up his current assignments to concentrate full time on the main committee that deals with taxes and spending.
In typical Goodlatte fashion, he has methodically researched how long Ways and Means members stay on board. He has found upward mobility there is at a glacial pace. Once on Ways and Means, members usually leave by one of three methods - they retire, they're defeated, or they die. But on Agriculture and Judiciary, there's much more turnover, and Goodlatte sees the potential for gaining seniority there more rapidly.
"I think I'd have a good shot at it," Goodlatte says of Ways and Means. "The down side is being very low-ranking as opposed to a higher ranking on two committees that collectively are nearly as good. ... My inclination is to stay where I am."
The Agriculture Committee may not sound important to Goodlatte's Roanoke Valley constituents, but it's vital to the timber interests in the Alleghany Highlands and the farmers in the Shenandoah Valley, who together make the 6th the state's top agricultural district.
And if he stays on Agriculture, there's an outside chance he could become a subcommittee chairman as early as this term, depending on what musical chairs other committee members play.
Another reason to stay where he is: The Judiciary Committee could be where much of the action is in a Republican-controlled Congress, especially as the GOP attempts to enact its "Contract with America" campaign platform. A constitutional amendment calling for a balanced budget would have to pass through Judiciary. So would a proposed constitutional amendment on term limits.
"Term limits is the one I've worked on very hard, and it will probably be very hard to get it through," Goodlatte says.
Most of the younger Republican members favor term limits; much of the party's leadership doesn't. Making it harder yet, a constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote to get through Congress.
How does he expect the term limit forces to prevail?
"The thing to remember is, it's never been out of committee for a vote, so there has never been an opportunity to focus public opinion on a bill," he says.
Goodlatte foresees a titanic battle in Congress that would rivet the public's attention - and galvanize support behind the amendment.
"The real test is how many members are willing to say they don't support term limits in spite of strong public support," Goodlatte says. "When that happens, there'll be some people who haven't supported term limits in the past who'll come over."
Goodlatte, if he stays on Judiciary, also expects to be in the middle of another, but less-noticeable, battle growing out of the "Contract with America." That's the Republicans' so-called "Common Sense Legal Reform Act," which, among other things, calls for "reforming consumer product liability laws to stem the tide of frivolous litigation."
Goodlatte participated in the GOP panel that drafted the act.
Denton sees Goodlatte's decision over whether to give up Agriculture and Judiciary to seek Ways and Means as a defining moment of his young career.
"At what point does he balance the parochial interests of his district versus the larger interests" of getting on a more prestigious committee?
"After only two years, he's already at that point. Those kinds of strains are going to become more evident."
Whatever Goodlatte decides about his committee assignments, one thing is already clear: Goodlatte wants to be in the thick of pushing the Republicans' national agenda.
That's a sharp contrast to his congressional neighbors.
Voters in the 5th and 9th districts know what it's like to have a congressman tightly connected with the majority party's leadership - Democrats L.F. Payne of Nelson County and Rick Boucher of Abingdon have been noted for their ability to secure federal funding for key projects back home.
As a Republican, Goodlatte likely is going to be a lot less interested in bringing home what critics might brand as "pork," Denton points out.
However, Payne and Boucher have never been seen as point men for their party's legislative agenda. Payne has carefully staked out a role as a swing vote on many fiscal issues; he even campaigned as being "instrumental in killing the Clinton health care plan." Boucher, meanwhile, has focused on issues without a clear ideological definition - telecommunications, for instance.
Goodlatte won't be nearly so shy about identifying with his party's national aims. "That's going to be an interesting challenge for him," Denton says, "but he seems to be comfortable with it."
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