THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 6, 1995 TAG: 9501060449
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY BETTY MITCHELL GRAY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Within hours of taking office Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Walter B. Jones Jr. voted to help abolish a federal fisheries committee his father once headed.
The 3rd District representative, a Republican, voted for a package of rule changes, proffered by the new Republican majority, that disbanded the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee.
N.C. Congressman Walter B. Jones Sr. headed that committee for much of his 25-year legislative career.
While the young Jones said he had mixed emotions about his vote to disband the committee, he felt his decision to side with the Republican majority was an important one, according to Glen Downs, a spokesman for Jones.
``He obviously had a lot of fondness for that committee,'' Downs said Thursday from his Washington, D.C., office. ``But in the aggregate, the number of committees had grown so large that everyone agreed they needed to be trimmed.''
Downs said Jones felt the vote was ``symbolically important'' and would serve as a model for other representatives who will be asked in coming months to cast votes reducing or abolishing pet programs on behalf of a ``greater good.''
Republican leaders had targeted the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee as one of three committees and several subcommittees to be dissolved under a package of rule changes. Other changes limited the number of terms House members can serve as speaker and cut committee staffs by one-third.
The House adopted all of those proposals on Wednesday.
GOP leaders said the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee was targeted along with other ``single-issue'' committees to help streamline House operations.
But Rep. Gerry Studds, D-Mass, who succeeded the elder Jones as chairman of the committee, opposed the move. In recent interviews, Studds said committee members had gained considerable expertise in fisheries and coastal issues, and that would be lost if the committee were disbanded.
Under the leadership of the elder Jones and Studds, the committee regulated issues including oil and gas exploration off the nation's coast, the fate of oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, federal fisheries legislation, and the operations of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Under the newly adopted House rules, fisheries issues now will be handled by the new Public Lands and Natural Resources Committee.
Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, will serve as chairman. The younger Jones also has been appointed to serve on that committee.
Spokesmen for commercial and recreational fishing groups in the state said that while some expertise on fisheries issues may be lost in the shift, the change will make very little difference to North Carolina's watermen.
``I don't know that it's going to have a major impact,'' said Bob Peele, a former aide to Jones and to former U.S. Rep. Martin Lancaster and now assistant director for the N.C. Fisheries Association in New Bern. ``It's going to be the same work. It's just going to be done by a different committee.''
Richard Brame, executive director of the N.C. chapter of the Atlantic Coast Conservation Association, said, ``We'll still be dealing with the same person, regardless of the name of the committee.''
Downs said the move will likely benefit the region because, in addition to fisheries issues, the new Public Lands and Natural Resources Committee also will consider measures regulating the nation's wetlands, which comprise a substantial part of the land in coastal North Carolina.
``From the standpoint of looking after eastern North Carolina, I would much rather be on this newly constituted committee,'' Downs said. ``I personally am very excited about the new committee. It's probably a step up for eastern North Carolina.'' by CNB