THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 5, 1995 TAG: 9501050449
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVID HESS AND STEVEN THOMMA
KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long : 102 lines
Newt Gingrich and his Republicans took control of the House on Wednesday and, after a 40-year exile from congressional power, kept the lights on late so no one in Washington or America would doubt who was in charge.
As he ascended to House speaker, Gingrich transformed himself from conservative Georgia firebrand to bipartisan statesman, asking Democrats to cooperate in slashing and reshaping federal programs. But he made it clear that Republicans will insist on doing most things their way.
On Wednesday, that meant working deep into the night to reform the way the House does business.
Perhaps the most important action was the House approval of a measure requiring a three-fifths majority vote to pass an income tax increase. It passed on a 279 to 152 vote, over the objections of Democrats who warned that the measure was blatantly unconstitutional and deserved more than the 20 minutes of debate that Republicans allowed on the measure.
The impact will be to make it much more difficult for the House to pass tax increases. Some of the major tax bills of recent years have passed by less than a 60 percent majority, including President Clinton's 1993 budget bill that cleared the House by just one vote.
But Republican supporters said the new rule would make income tax increases a last resort, not a first resort.
Earlier, the House approved new rules limiting the term of a speaker to eight years and of committee chairs to six years. That passed easily, 355-74, as did new rules requiring more committee meetings to be open, cutting committee staff by one-third and banning House members from voting by proxy in committees.
More contentious was the effort by House Democrats to open up the GOP rules package for amendments - such as one banning lawmakers from accepting gifts and paid vacations from lobbyists. House Republicans, promising to write their own bill on the matter later in the year, beat back the parliamentary maneuver on a 235-196 vote.
Fortified by scores of like-minded new members who share his philosophy, Gingrich was firm in promising to use his new majority to achieve sweeping welfare reform, toughen anti-crime laws, strive for a balanced budget, and limit the tenure of congressional leaders.
As the 104th Congress got under way, Republicans could barely contain their enthusiasm for their newfound power. They cheered Gingrich as he mounted the House podium and was presented by the outgoing majority leader, Richard Gephardt, D-Mo., with the same gavel used 40 years ago by the last Republican Speaker - Rep. Joseph Martin of Massachusetts.
It was a remarkable scene, played out before droves of well-wishers, family members and constituents who wanted to be witnesses to history at the start of the first Republican Congress in four decades.
On the other, overshadowed side of the Capitol, Republicans also regained majority control and promised an agenda of tax and spending cuts.
But in stark contrast to the frenetic House, the Senate took the day in a leisurely pace marked more by ceremony than substance. In fact, the Senate was nearly empty within 30 minutes after Vice President Al Gore finished swearing in new members, and the chamber recessed altogether for an hour at 1 p.m. so senators could watch Gingrich being sworn in.
``We'd like to see a little history in the making,'' said Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan.
In a symbolic gesture of bipartisanship, Gingrich asked Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., the longest-serving House member with 39 years in office, to swear him in.
``It was a great honor,'' Dingell said afterward. ``Would I rather have been swearing in a Democrat? Of course. But we do these things out of reverence for the office, for the institution and for the country.''
In his address to Congress, Gingrich invited Democrats to join Republicans in adopting a constitutional amendment proposal to require a balanced budget by 2002.
Gingrich also called on Democrats to help in ``replacing the welfare state with the opportunity society,'' calling the plight of the poor ``a moral crisis equal to segregation, equal to slavery.''
In calling for cooperation with Democrats, Gingrich said both parties have a lot to learn from each other about things each did right.
As the day wore on, the niceties gave way to verbal blows as Democrats, now in an unaccustomed minority, challenged several rules changes proposed by the GOP.
House Democrats complained repeatedly that Republicans were ramrodding their proposals through under a ``gag rule.'' ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Newly sworn in and cheered by his fellow Republicans, House Speaker
Newt Gingrich addresses the chamber during the opening session of
the 104th Congress on Wednesday.
HOW THEY VOTED
A ``yes'' vote is a vote to approve the requirement that any tax
increase be passed with a three-fifths majority.
Herbert H. Bateman, R-Va.Did not vote
Owen B. Pickett, D-Va.No
Robert C. Scott, D-Va.No
Norman Sisisky, D-Va.Yes
Eva Clayton, D-N.C. No
by CNB