1. There is a need for more predictable floor scheduling and a more "family friendly" work environment.

2. Too much legislative time is taken up with commemoratives. This should be delegated to a presidential commission.

3. There should be time limits on multiple referrals.

4. The select committees are too expensive; they should be eliminated. Questions and Answers

Dreier: Notes that the framers wanted certain government institutions to be deliberately inefficient. Congress must be careful that things are not so streamlined that legislation is rushed through.

Skelton: Members just need to have more time to consider legislation, write their own speeches and rely less on staff. They need more time for reflection.

Dreier: Should the Committee consider a major reduction in the number of staff and a reduction in the number of committees? This would give Members the opportunity to better reflect on important matters.

Skelton: Members can use the work product of staff to allow them to think and reflect.

Dreier: Are you prepared to make some of these tough decisions? Are we going to make major reductions in staff and the number of committees?

Skelton: We have already cut back on the number of committees. We need to make this place more responsive. The best way to do that is to give the Members more time for reflection.

Representative John Edward Porter

Defends the work of legislative service organizations (LSO's) and urges that they not be abolished. They provide a creative outlet for policy interests, especially those of the minority. Porter is Co-Chairman of the Human Rights Caucus.

Argues that the LSO's have evolved to fill a niche and meet the unmet needs of their members; otherwise -- because membership in LSO's is purely voluntary and driven by demand -- they would not exist. He does agree with some of the criticisms that have been made of the LSO's and believes that certain reforms are needed to ensure that there are no violations or exceptions in the conformity of LSO's with House rules.

Porter also supports a six-year limitation on the amount of time a Member may serve as Chairman of a committee or subcommittee. Such a change would make the House more dynamic and responsive, something lacking when a Member can chair the same committee for 10 or 20 or 30 years, building independent relationships with special interest groups and the bureaucracy.

Questions and Answers

Dreier: I'm pleased to hear that there will be a debate on reform of the LSO's. I respect the work that they do but I would advocate their elimination.

Dunn: Your [Porter's] comments on term limits are interesting.

Porter: Amending the rules with respect to term limits of committee chairs would create a more dynamic body.

Dunn: Do the committee chairmen hire the staff?

Porter: The chairman has the right to hire the staff, but often keeps the old staff on because of their knowledge of the issues and institutional memory.

Representative Earl Hutto

Supports the work of the Joint Committee and notes that respect for Congress has reached a low ebb. Suggests the following:

1. Provide for a longer budget cycle; two years would be a good idea.

2. Cut down the number of committees and group them, as they do in Florida, to make scheduling easier.

3. Create non-partisan staffs for the committees.

4. Extend the terms of House Members from two to four years.

5. Enact campaign spending limits. Continue to allow PACs but limit the amount a PAC can give to a candidate.

6. Allow enhanced rescissions.

Representative E. Clay Shaw Jr.

Supports Representative Porter's testimony. Supports rotation of committee members. Staff should also be rotated.

There is need for reform of the informal caucuses and LSO's. Caucuses are not audited, yet they take taxpayers' dollars.

Representative Joel Hefley

Notes disdain among the public for Members of Congress. Members get no respect. Most Members are trying to do what's right but that's not being conveyed because the system "eats us alive;" we need to change.

One problem is that of one party dictatorship in the House. The Joint Committee should look at the role of the minority and give them more of a part in policy making. Power is too concentrated; there is an arrogance of power. Refers to the old saying that the job of the minority is to show up, make a quorum, and collect its pay. Specifically recommends:

1. End proxy voting. The American people cannot understand how you cannot be present and still vote. Hefley's practice is not to give his proxy to the ranking minority members of his committees.

2. Change the practice of joint referrals.

3. Would favor term limits for committee membership; would be willing to rotate off Armed Services.

4. Congress should include itself in the laws it passes for others.

Questions and Answers

Dreier: Agrees with the point on proxy voting. This change could go in hand with a rule on committee term limits.

hand

Representative Jim Bacchus

The class of 1990 played a pivotal role in creating the Joint Committee and supports the work of the Committee. He supports the following changes:

1. Eliminate the exemption Congress gives itself when it passes laws for others.

2. Improve open meeting rules. The rule is riddled with loopholes. Notes that committee votes on authorizing the space station were made in executive session. Recommends that committees should only be closed because of national security or testimony that might defame an individual.

3. Improve financial disclosure rules. There should be more detailed disclosure, specifically, annual net worth statements and disclosure of tax returns. Bacchus will introduce legislation to implement these proposals.

Representative Dave McCurdy

His ideas are aimed at efficiency and accountability.

Cites the need to reform the House committee structure. Notes that prior to the start of the 103d Congress, the average Member served on seven "various panels."

Committee jurisdictions remain outdated and improperly aligned to respond to current policy challenges in a timely manner. Notes that the comprehensive energy reform bill in the last Congress originated in the Energy and Commerce Committee but then was referred to eight additional committees.

Also proposes to limit the terms of committee chairs and ranking minority members and make them appointed by their respective party leaders in the House.

Also supports creating a mechanism to insure congressional compliance with all labor, civil rights and other employment-related laws.

Questions and Answers

Dreier: What do you recommend as the numbers of committees and subcommittees that would be appropriate?

McCurdy: You could reduce the number of committees by a third or a fourth. This would create large, in terms of membership, committees, but you could create enough subcommittees so that this factor would be mitigated. Proxies should be done away with. We could develop a new committee system based on the kind of roles and mission exercises that the military goes through. Our jurisdictions are too artificial. We need to start from the ground up. The Joint Committee has the opportunity to do something that will outlive this session of Congress. It is time to change the structure of the way we operate. We are becoming irrelevant to the American public.

Boren: Favors rotating the chairs of the committees. Six years was enough for him when he served as Intelligence Committee chairman. Committee chairs should not become too comfortable with the interest groups; there could be a tendency for the committee to become too institutionalized. We have become unwilling to try new ideas or to bring freshness to the institution. Boren would also support a commission regarding commemoratives. Jurisdictional reform is also needed. It is difficult for the President to have a partnership with Congress when we have the current system of overlapping jurisdictions.

McCurdy: The model of the military base closure commission could be a useful model for a mechanism to reform the committees.

Boren: He would support a major, bold piece of reform legislation. Let the American people know that this is what we are going to do and let Congress vote on it. If we don't reform Congress this year, we will have term limits and Congress deserves to "be blown out of the water."

Dunn: One emerging theme of these hearings seems to be limiting the terms of committee chairmen. What are your thoughts on this?

McCurdy: Supports limiting tenure on committees. In this fashion, you can hold the leadership accountable. Regarding staff, the Intelligence Committees had one of the smallest staffs in Congress, small but highly professional. Term limits might vest too much power in the staff; better to limit the staff internally rather than externally.

Representative Porter J. Goss

Makes four points:

1. The House Ethics Committee should operate independently and be nonpartisan.

2. The rules regarding the release of classified information should be reviewed.

3. Restore Congress as an institution dedicated to public service, not selfservice.

4. Supports Boren regarding a comprehensive reform bill this year.

Representative Patricia Schroeder

1. Congress should place itself under the laws it passes for everyone else.

2. Childrens' issues need to be supported. The House, unlike the Senate, does not have the necessary work groups to consider childrens' issues. Proposes that in the four major committees that have jurisdiction over children, there should be at least one subcommittee to look at childrens' issues.

3. Would create a subcommittee that would combine children and aging so that generations would not be pitted against one another.