RATING YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES
CAPITOL CONNECTION
Yesterday morning, I spoke to some folks from the National Pest Control Association who were in town to visit their congressmen. After my speech, I asked each of them whom they hoped to see. “Senator Lugar,” one responded. Others chimed in, “Congressman Rinaldo.” “Congressman McMillan.” “Senator Gramm.”
Finally, a man in the corner spoke up, “Congressman Dolittle of California… 14th District. Congressman Dolittle,” he said.
“Why that’s all of ’em,” replied a man who was greeted with laughter from his fellow pest controllers. Doolittle. Do little. Get it?
Congressional jokes have become more popular than ever lately. The joking may be fun, but it’s not always fair. Many senators and representatives work hard, face enormous frustrations, and receive little thanks.
Congressional Fire Services Caucus founder Curt Weldon, for example, has spent most weekends in recent years speaking before state fire service groups coast to coast. He never has asked lor a dime beyond his travel expenses. Yet, last year he was listed on the infamous “We love to fly and it shows” list of Congress members who accept free travel from special interests. The list generally implies that legislators went as guests of some bigbucks lobby to the Paris Air Show, Hawaii, Europe, Palm Springs, or some other pleasure spot. Putting Weldon—who spoke at Moose halls in the Midwest and American Legion posts in Alabama—on that list was a cheap shot. (Curt since has introduced legislation reforming the tradition of free travel —but that’s a story for another column.)
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
To voters, America has become a nation of unfinished legislative business; and Congress, consequently, has become the latest American “whipping boy.” There was a time when members of Congress couldn’t w ait to get back home to shake hands with and talk to constituents. Today, many members of Congress privately concede they’d rather stay in Washington than face the voters back home.
Every poll seems to say the same thing: Americans are frustrated by their leadership and confused by what they see and hear. Last winter’s public debate over tax cuts was one of the most confusing yet. Tax cuts? What happened to the deficit? What happened to the “peace dividend”? Who is proposing what? And why are they proposing it? And, after all of the hooting and hollering, why hasn’t anything happened?
W hat is happening to the Benjamin Franklin Memorial Fire Service Bill of Rights? What happened to the millions of dollars for rural firefighting? Why did Congress pass all sorts of laws to deal with hazardous-materials incidents but refuse to fund much of anything?
A RATING SYSTEM
Bill Reimann, a recently retired volunteer firefighter from Bad Axe, Michigan, sits on the legislative committee of the National Volunteer Fire Council. At a recent meeting, Bill asked an excellent question: “How do we know if our congressional representatives are doing a good job for us? Can’t we publish a congressional voting record concerning major fire legislation? Is there anything else we can do to find out what they’re doing?”
Some organizations—notably the AFL-CIO. the American Medical Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and certain liberal and conservative watchdogs—track votes on major legislation and give members a rating. When legislators vote “right” (that is, the way a group wants them to vote), they get points. When they vote “wrong,” they lose points. These groups may watch a dozen major bills and have enough recorded votes to rate every member of Congress.
But that won’t work for the fire service. There are just too few pieces of legislation that deal solely with public safety, and of those, very few’ are subjected to a recorded vote.
In truth, almost all legislation affects the fire service in some wav. But consider your average 500-page tax measure, which might have one page containing something of interest to fire departments. Is it fair to say that a congressional representative voted against the fire service if he or she voted against that bill? No.
In contrast, the AFL-CIO’s Committee on Political Education (COPE) always has a raft of votes on broad measures that labor supports or opposes. One day it might be “minimum wage,” the next it might be something on worker safety in mines, the next it might be health benefits. In the past four years, I doubt that Congress has voted on three matters of unique interest to the fire service. So forget about the questionnaire and rating system.
How about bills sponsored or cosponsored by your congressional representatives? Well, perhaps. But, during every two-year session, Congress introduces an average of 20,()()() bills and passes maybe 10 percent of them. Too many bills are introduced as public-relations gimmicks, and a great many “cosponsors” couldn’t even tell you what bills they cosponsored. One particularly infamous haz-mat bill was cosponsored by a majority of the members of a House subcommittee and yet failed to receive a majority when a vote was taken.
What about membership in the Caucus? Fair enough. If a member of Congress doesn’t belong to the Caucus, I would say that he or she does not think much about the fire service. But, just because a member belongs to the Caucus doesn’t mean that he or she votes to support firefighters every time.
WHAT’S LEFT?
You always can ask your congressional representative to do something. It should be something he or she can do; and if it gets done, you may have your answer.
Bill Reimann’s representative is Rep. Bill Traxler, who happens to chair the Appropriations subcommittee that decides how much money the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) gets each year. The CPSC is one of the few federal agencies actively working on fire issues. So, when Bill and his fellow firefighters in Bad Axe, Michigan, recently asked Rep. Traxler to look after the fire prevention efforts at the CPSC, that wasn’t a bad test. How did Congressman Traxler do? The jury is still out, but we know that he pays attention when the people in the firehouse talk. (Unfortunately, Rep. Traxler has announced his retirement.)
Not everyone is represented by a committee chairperson. The fact is, though, that many members of Congress exert enough influence to make good things happen. If you want to know if your representatives are working for you, ask them to do something, and then watch. If they do it, fine. If they promise to do it and drop the ball, that tells you something. If they refuse to help and have a good reason, you might want to respect their position and try again on some other issue. In any event, put your representatives to the test.
A REALITY CHECK
Don’t kid yourself. The fire service is just one of scores of groups pounding on Congress. It is said that Congress is ruled by “special interests.” It is so, and it is good. Special interests— ranging from big business to senior citizens, teachers, nurses, pest controllers, air controllers, consumerists, civiland animal-rights advocates, artists, the homeless and the homebuilders, the hungry and the restaurateurs, bus drivers, athletes, the handicapped, and so on — rule Congress in perhaps the purest form of democracy this nation has seen. Everyone is represented. Everyone is a special interest. A lot of folks are represented 10 times over.
When it is determined that your representatives indeed have been responsive to the cause of the fire service, remember. It is a two-way street. We have a right to know how our legislators are doing But, when we do find out, it’s up to us to either keep them there —in which case the fire service should remember its friends in Congress—or “t’row da’ bums out.”*
