Rockefeller Center Director Linda Fowler, long considered an authority on government and elections, last week got to put her expertise to good use when she journeyed to Williamsburg, Va. to observe the four-day orientation for incoming members of the 105th session of the House of Representatives.
The Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, coordinators of the orientation program, selected Fowler to observe the session and serve as a consultant to CRS.
"The congressmen met with first-rate experts in informal settings," Fowler said.
Only 36 U.S. representatives -- about half the new members -- most of whom were Democrats, attended the orientation, Fowler said. She commented that some of the new Members of Congress appeared to have promising futures.
Although she was quick not to make generalizations about the new members, she observed that "as a class they seemed to be more pragmatic, and less certain about what the answers were to Congress' problems."
The most interesting part of the orientation, Fowler remarked, was the reading of a speech Payton Randolph delivered in 1774 as speaker of Virginia's House of Burgesses -- a speech that predates the U.S. House itself.
Randolph "spoke to the history of our country's legislature," Fowler said
She noted that over the years, the issues faced by Congress may change, "but the job hasn't."
The speech was a "classic statement of the frustration that comes from the legislative process," Fowler said. However, it also stressed "statesmanship and placing the people's interests ahead of one's own," she said.
Following the speech were discussions focusing on issues likely to be faced by the House this year, Fowler said.
Balancing the budget will "dominate" the agenda, Fowler said. She added, "Every year this task gets more onerous, because the easy cuts have been made."
And while many Members of Congress desire campaign reform, "they feel trapped by the system they have to operate in," Fowler said.
She stated, most members did not enter politics to spend their days "dialing for dollars."
The orientation allowed the new members to "talk freely, off-the-record and across party lines," Fowler said. "If the freshman congressmen are going to have an impact, they must go across party lines."
With a Democratic president and a Republican-controlled Congress, there is much talk these days in Washington, D.C. of bipartisanship, but Fowler said she believes such words may be misleading.
"The rhetoric is there, but I'm uncertain about the capacity," Fowler said, noting the retirements at the end of the last election cycle of 15 U.S. senators, many of whom often reached across party lines,.
In the House, the Republican majority is more narrow than it was two years ago, Fowler said. Therefore, "the moderate northeastern Republican's role is more pivotal. House Speaker Newt Gingrich will have to pay attention to them."
Since recently re-elected President Bill Clinton is now a "lame-duck president," the congressional Democrats "will not necessarily" go along with him, she said.
In his State of the Union Address Tuesday night, the president acknowledged that Congress' job will be more difficult than his.
The Democrats need to decide if they are going to be a "constructive or destructive majority," Fowler said.
