31/07/2008

A Tale of Two Committees

One of the benefits to working in an office where there are far too many interns for the work available is that we get to go a relatively high number of events on the Hill outside of the office, such as hearings, briefings and receptions.

Committee hearings are essentially the organs of the legislative process; bills that have been introduced to either house of Congress are passed over to the committees to be examined, amended etc, and otherwise select committees can be convened to look into specialised topics. But until today I've been thoroughly underwhelmed by what I've seen in committee hearings, both at the full-committee and sub-committee level, to the extent that I've not been enthusiastic about going along to some that have come up.

For instance, last week, the Judiciary Committee held a hearing into the Bush presidency. It was bound to be controversial - but the various members couldn't even agree as to whether it was the first step down the road to impeachment or not. Two hours later and the witnesses hadn't even finished making their opening statements. I left, thoroughly bored and disenchanted with what should have been a groundbreaking and incredibly far reaching hearing. But today I went along to one at a committee I've never been to before, the Committee on Science and Technology, and for a change, was thoroughly impressed. So let me compare and contrast that committee with the Judiciary committee - the committee I've perhaps spent the most time watching.

The Judiciary committee is obviously one of the more prestigious in the House and as such, it seems to be staffed by people with inflated egos and agendas. A typical hearing, whether designed to look into proposed legislation or undertaking an investigation starts with ALL of the committee reading out their opening statements (all of which are available on paper) and in doing so usually far exceeding their alloted five minutes to make partisan points, either because they say too much, or because they speak so incredibly slowly. The witnesses then do the same with their opening statements which have already been circulated to all present. By this point, in my experience it's not unusual for two-hours to have elapsed, yet nothing has actually happened. When the questioning starts a sizable chunk of the time is taken up with each side making 'points of order' and issuing 'parliamentary inquiries' which are usually batted aside by the Chair, but not before they've used up more time. Today for instance the issue was legislation on allowing people to make claims against the Iraqi government in US courts for compensation for torture. After starting an hour late, the next 45 minutes consisted predominantly of sniping, before one member asked to make a point of order, to which another candidly replied "he doesn't have one". It's such a shame to see such an important committee descend into such a farce, especially when at the end not enough members had stuck around to make up a quorum, so the vote had to be postponed anyway.

The contrast with the Science and Technology Committee couldn't have been greater. Granted, it was a hearing on the future of NASA, to which both the Democrats and the few Republicans who showed up seemed to share a broad consensus, and John Glen was testifying, but the whole thing was slickly run and respectable and it actually felt like the hearing achieved something. Opening statements were limited to the two senior committee members, and the witnesses stuck to the time limits. The questioning was civil and again, time limits were strictly enforced. The result? All over in two hours, everyone present (both members and audience) stayed until the end, and the process just seemed to work as it's meant too.

Of course, there's not so much to be gained on the Science and Technology Committee as there is on the Judiciary one, but it's striking just how dissimilar two committees can be and I can only put it down to partisanship and the leadership skills of the committee chair. Judiciary is incredibly partisan, and the chair is largely ineffective. Science and Technology had a strong, yet fair, and likable chair and there was broad respect across the aisle.

Everyone talks about needing to build a bi-partisan consensus to get anything done here. I'd wager that it's not about consensus so much as a mutual respect regardless of ideology and an acknowledgment that the good of the process depends on more than petty squabbles about terminology and technicalities which can only serve to score cheap political points at the expense of political progress.

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