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

DATE: FRIDAY, January 6, 1995                   TAG: 9501060105
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                 LENGTH: Long

BOUCHER HAS HIS OWN AGENDA FOR 9TH DISTRICT

Rep. Rick Boucher, a member of the minority party for the first time in his 19-year political career, started the 104th Congress this week discounting the Republican "Contract With America" and pushing his own four-point agenda for the 9th District.

The Abingdon Democrat, who represents most of Southwest Virginia west of Salem, lost one committee assignment in the GOP takeover, but continues to sit on two key panels: the Commerce and Judiciary committees.

The new Commerce chairman is Richmond's Tom Bliley. "He and I have an excellent relationship. We have a common view of Virginia's interests," Boucher said. "The next best thing to having my party in the majority is having Tom Bliley as chairman."

He points to bipartisan support for many of his past efforts, but also continues to view the contract - House Speaker Newt Gingrich's blueprint for a conservative reformation - as little more than a campaign document, with "deplorable" math that even many Republicans have shied away from.

The Telecommunications Reform Act that Boucher championed last session and expects to pass this time "is bigger than any of the items in the contract," he said.

The 10-bill contract, which Gingrich read to the opening session of Congress on Wednesday, pledges a balanced-budget amendment with simultaneous tax cuts, welfare reform and increases in defense spending.

"Congress is not going to pass something that results in either the explosion of the deficit before the balanced-budget amendment kicks in, or a devastation of programs for the elderly, such as Social Security or Medicare, after the balanced budget kicks in," Boucher said.

He said he would support the balanced-budget amendment if it includes flexibility to go into the red in times of national-security or economic emergencies and if it recognizes that debt financing is appropriate in certain circumstances.

Boucher is skeptical of Republican tax-cut plans. He's concerned a broad tax cut would send too much money flowing into the economy at once, which could defeat the Federal Reserve Board's attempts to control inflation by boosting interest rates. The result could be the combination of rising inflation and high rates. "The normal American gains nothing in the transition," he said.

Boucher, in an interview at his Pulaski office before heading to Washington last week, explained his four-point agenda for the new year. It includes:

Protecting federal economic development money from budget cuts. This includes funds that have built industrial parks, roads and utility systems in most of the 9th District's 23 counties and cities in recent years. Boucher fought to protect one such agency - the Appalachian Regional Commission - from President Reagan's cuts a decade ago. Now he said he'll also be fighting for the Economic Development Administration and for Community Development Block Grants through the departments of Agriculture and Housing and Urban Development.

"The burden will have to be borne by the proponents of programs to justify their continuing existence," he said.

Resurrecting three bills that died in the partisan free-for-all in the waning days of the 103rd Congress in October. These include the Telecommunications Reform Act, the interstate garbage bill - inspired by the Kim-Stan landfill disaster in Alleghany County - and a reform of the Superfund program, which Boucher says has been largely ineffective in cleaning up toxic dump sites.

The communications bill, originally designed to allow cable television and telephone companies to compete in each other's markets using new, two-way, fiber optic technologies, has been expanded. Under the change, electric utilities, such as American Electric Power, the parent company of Appalachian Power Co., would be able to compete for that business, too. The effort would improve communications networks for rural areas, create jobs and do so by using market and regulatory incentives - rather than government spending - to spur investments in new technology, Boucher said.

All three bills have bipartisan support and should pass the House this session, he predicted.

Adding "communications intensive businesses" to his Showcasing Southwest Virginia program. These include telephone reservation centers for airlines, motel and car rental chains and bank-card authorization centers. With improvements in the telecommunications networks, companies can bring such operations to Southwest Virginia and realize savings on operating costs while enjoying a dedicated work force, Boucher said. He'll also hold conferences in the district this year on taking advantage of international trade opportunities, on starting and expanding a business and, as last year, on telecommunications.

Seeking $5 million in federal money for Virginia Tech's effort to combine fiber optic and wireless communications research and teaching in one new building. State and private money also are going into the project.