THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, December 1, 1994 TAG: 9412010427
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE ADDIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 83 lines
The Republican drive to reduce the size of Congress will have an immediate impact on Hampton Roads next year as the Merchant Marine and Fisheries committee is on the short list of panels that will be eliminated by the House of Representatives.
The committee has governed a wide array of port-sensitive issues, including merchant marine affairs, oceanography, the Coast Guard, costal-zone management, fisheries and wildlife.
Reps. Owen B. Pickett, D-2nd Dist., and Herbert H. Bateman, R-1st Dist., who between them represent the majority of Hampton Roads' maritime community, are committee members. Bateman, in fact, was slated to chair the panel in a Republican-dominated Congress and recently held a news conference touting the importance of that new responsibility.
Pickett, in an interview Wednesday, said the effect of the breakup will be muted to a degree because maritime affairs likely will be shifted to the Armed Services committee. Pickett, Bateman, and Rep. Norman Sisisky, D-4th Dist., have seats on that committee, which will give the region's congressmen continued influence on maritime commerce issues.
Dan Scanlon, a spokesman for Bateman, said Wednesday that the Peninsula congressman will have first or second choice of Armed Service subcommittee chairmanships under the Republican majority, which he described as ``a coup for this area.''
Pickett admitted that the committee breakup could have some negative backwash for Hampton Roads. ``The only thing,'' he said, ``and it's a very subtle, remote sort of thing, is that if Merchant Marine and Fisheries goes away, nationally that will mean less visibility'' for port-commerce issues.
Dr. Geoffrey A. Motte, a maritime-affairs expert at Old Dominion University, was more pointed in his appraisal. ``That was the only centralized and focused platform for the maritime industry at large,'' said Motte, who is director of ODU's International Maritime, Ports and Logistics Management Institute. ``Now there will be none.''
``That's a bit sad,'' Motte said, ``and I think myself it's a bit misguided. I would like to have seen a stronger voice than a dispersed and weaker voice for the maritime industry.
``With only 4 percent of cargo being carried by U.S.-flagged ships, obviously Congress regards the merchant marine in a much lesser light than has been so in the past. This is being displayed in the way this committee is being dispersed.''
While Pickett and Bateman are confident that their Armed Services assignments will keep them close to maritime matters, their ability to track other port-city and coastal issues may be more problematic.
A dissolved committee's responsibilities could be spread in several directions: Coast Guard issues, for example, might be shifted to the Public Works and Transportation committee, Pickett said. Environmental, wildlife and fisheries affairs would be moved to other panels.
Pickett said Wednesday he is likely to gain one more committee seat, which would allow him to follow additional issues important to Hampton Roads as they are spread to other House committees. The new alignments are too murky at this point, he said, to predict which assignment might be more advantageous to his constituents in Norfolk and Virginia Beach.
Committee assignments can seem arcane and irrelevant to the average voter, but they can be critical to a representative's ability to watch over his district's interests. The ill-starred Merchant Marine and Fisheries committee, for example, had environmental and conservation powers that gave it sway over early aspects of the Lake Gaston water pipeline project.
The panel's former chairman, the late Rep. Walter B. Jones, D-N.C., used his leadership post as a way to thwart Virginia interests in the water project. Pickett, conversely, used his committee post as a way to keep tabs on Lake Gaston's progress and lobby for the interests of Virginia Beach constituents who would benefit from the pipeline project.
Two other House committees face a quick extinction when the Republican majority takes over in January: the Post Office and Civil Service committee and the District of Columbia committee. The cutbacks are part of incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrich's vow to cut the size and expense of congressional operations. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
Owen B. Pickett
KEYWORDS: MERCHANT MARINE AND FISHERIES COMMITTEE by CNB