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Subject: 14 of 110 Freshmen Attend 'Revolution'; Despite Sparse Crowd, Republicans
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 92 04:42:49 EST
Message-ID: <37.1992Nov24.044249@AmeriCast.com>
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14 of 110 Freshmen Attend 'Revolution'; Despite Sparse Crowd,
Republicans Adopt Plan to Overhaul Congress<By Kenneth J.
Cooper<Washington Post Staff Writer=

OMAHA, Nov. 23 - What was hatched as "a freshman class revolt"
turned into at most a minor disturbance as 14 Republicans and no
Democrats newly elected to the House gathered here today to plot
strategy for engaging the entrenched powers in Congress.

Despite the low turnout among the 110 House freshmen, Republicans
at the public meetings adopted a five-point plan for congression-
al overhaul and vowed to enlist more members-elect from both par-
ties in their efforts to help restore public faith in Congress.

"I believe most - if not all - of us campaigned against
Congress," said Rep.-elect Ernest Jim Istook (R-Okla.), now a
state legislator. "It was us against them. Now, we find we're
about to be one of them."

The 14 new members endorsed a 12-year limit on congressional
terms and constitutional amendments to require a balanced budget
and give the president a line-item veto. Those proposals have
more support among Republicans than Democrats in the House, mak-
ing them fodder for partisan warfare.

More likely to attract Democratic recruits in the largest class
of House freshmen since 1948 are Republican proposals to curb in-
terest group financing of congressional campaigns. Changes in
campaign finance have been a big concern of freshmen Democrats.

"By sheer force of our numbers, we have terrific potential to do
great things," said Rep.-elect Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), a former
county judge.  "We will have incredible strength if we're uni-
fied. I think we need to make our class unified across party
lines."

But accompanying calls to do bipartisan battle was some admira-
tion for the "Gang of Seven," the Republican freshmen in the last
Congress who targeted House perks and attacked House Democratic
leaders. With larger numbers, "just think what we can do, the
freshman class of 1993" said Rep.-elect Michael Huffington (R-
Calif.), a wealthy businessman.

Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.), a Gang of Seven member, was
one of four House incumbents at today's summit. Rep. Fred Grandy
(R-Iowa) hosted a reception Sunday night to tout his overhaul
proposals.  Two other GOP incumbents came at the last minute to
seek freshmen support as candidates to lead the House Republican
Conference: Rep. Richard K. Armey (R-Tex.) and Rep. Jerry Lewis
(R-Calif.), the current chairman.

As recently as last week, 20 Republicans were expected at the
freshmen summit, and more than 150 House hopefuls signed up be-
fore the vast majority of them were defeated three weeks ago.

The originator of the Omaha summit, Tom Huening, came even though
he lost his House race in northern California. His original
design would have banned incumbents from what Huening envisioned
as "a bipartisan gathering that would stage a freshman class re-
volt against the status quo."

Rep.-elect Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), a Cuban-American state
legislator from Miami, acted as chairman of an otherwise non-
Hispanic white male group except for him and Pryce, the only wom-
an. Nine of the 14 have been elected to public office before and
six defeated House members, giving the group an anti-incumbent
edge.

Several of the Republicans said they were disappointed at the
summit turnout and blamed transition  preparations, holiday trav-
els and House Democratic leaders who preempted the Omaha meetings
by holding three regional sessions with nearly all their party's
freshmen two weeks ago.

Most congressional overhaul ideas mentioned at the meetings were
conventional, but a few were not:<

Huffington called for scrapping the seniority system because
"under term limits, you can't wait to move up." California was
among 14 states recently to approve congressional term limits,
but their constitutionality is in doubt.<

Huffington and Reps.-elect Martin R. Hoke (R-Ohio) and Bob Inglis
(R-S.C.) called for a ban on campaign contributions from politi-
cal action committees, a move that a Common Cause representative
advised was probably unconstitutional. Rep.-elect Nick Smith (R-
Mich.) suggested cutting the maximum PAC contribution from $5,000
to $1,000, a change with some bipartisan support in the House.<

Rep.-elect Robert D. Franks (R-N.J.), a state legislator, said
members should pay to use the reserved parking area at National
Airport. As a group, the 14 Republicans called for freshmen
representation on a bipartisan, House-Senate panel reviewing the
organization of Congress and for a Washington meeting with the
rest of the 1992 class in two weeks.<02:30 11-24C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

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