ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, December 18, 1994                   TAG: 9412200022
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: G-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short


CONGRESS

YOU HAVE to give credit to House Speaker-elect Newt Gingrich and his fellow Republicans for some very good proposals they've made to clean up and make more orderly the House of Representatives.

You also have to know the reason these reforms haven't been implemented before: The old, entrenched Democratic leadership over decades had grown comfortable with the status quo.

On the plus side of GOP proposals: Not only would the number of committees and subcommittees be appropriately reduced, along with committee staffing. New voting rules would open up the legislative process to more meaningful debate by more members. Most committee meetings would be open too, and committee votes recorded, and the Congressional Record would report what is actually said in floor debate. All of which would enhance congressional accountability.

Another nice touch: Funding for 28 House caucuses would be eliminated. Last year Congress disbanded a bunch of "select committees," only to recreate several of them as "caucuses." Sorry, but why should taxpayers fund a Congressional Rural Caucus or a Congressional Automotive Caucus? It's not clear, for that matter, why the long-established Congressional Black Caucus should be publicly funded.

One bad proposal, which should be scrapped, would require a three-fifths vote to approve tax increases. This would violate the respect for majority rule on display in the House Republicans' other recommended reforms.



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