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Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
WASHINGTON — New Mexico’s Congressional delegation will lose a combined 52 years of experience when the 110th Congress comes to an end later this month, and Sen.-elect Tom Udall will take an additional 10 years of seniority when he moves to the Senate.
New Mexico will also lose spots on the Senate and House appropriations committees, which determine federal spending levels and earmarks.
All of the state’s representatives in Washington, as well as lobbyists, are aware of the new challenges that the delegation will face as it tries to preserve federal funding for New Mexico’s military installations and national laboratories, while also protecting the state’s energy industry.
“Obviously, seniority matters, and we are going to have to spend a few years rebuilding seniority for the state delegation,” said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, the senior Democrat who has served in the Senate for 26 years.
“Tom [Udall] has a lot of experience in Congress and has a lot of friends in the Senate. He will be very able to be effective from the first day he is sworn in. The House members will have more of a learning curve to climb up, since all three are new.”
The members of the new delegation met in Bingaman’s office last month to discuss how they could work together, but the reality is that new members do not have much control in choosing committee assignments, particularly in the House where the decision is left up to the Steering and Policy Committee, a panel of senior Democratic party leaders and committee chairmen.
On some policy issues, regional alliances could trump seniority and party affiliation. The Western Caucus, a group of House lawmakers from Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and elsewhere, can shift the outcome of legislation if they organize themselves.
But New Mexicans with experience on Capitol Hill are concerned that won’t be enough.
“When it comes to seniority, we’ve been crippled by the amount of power we lost and ability to have an effect on issues important to the state’s future,” Marco Gonzales, an Albuquerque lawyer who worked for Domenici, said.
“That’s a crippling loss of experience and seniority that in the House and Senate translates into power and ability to get things done. That is going to be what’s critical to New Mexico.”
Lobbyists, too, are wary about the effectiveness of such a freshman-heavy delegation.
“Those of us who are familiar with the workings of Congress understand how important seniority is and the relationships that have developed over time are. From that aspect I absolutely have concerns that we’ve lost a lot of stroke, if you will,” said Bob Gallagher, the president of the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association, a pressure group that lobbies state and federal lawmakers.
Moreover, the benefits of seniority are not always clear to the naked eye. Nobody knows how many times retiring Sen. Pete Domenici blocked spending cuts to New Mexico’s federal installations, for instance. And, although it was not well-known, retiring Rep. Steve Pearce successfully blocked a fellow Republicans from closing a federal law enforcement training center.
“Not only do I have concerns about the items we know about, it’s the items that we never knew about. Whether [it was] something good for New Mexico or something that was prevented behind the scenes that was bad for New Mexico,” Gallagher added.
Pressure on Bingaman
Domenici is retiring after 36 years in Congress and, as a result, he will give up his top spot on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Sen.-elect Tom Udall, who is leaving the House after 10 years, had just won an appointment to serve on the House Appropriations Committee last year. He will give up the seat.
“Domenici will be greatly missed in same way as Clinton P. Anderson, who retired in 1973, and Joe Montoya and Harrison Schmidt,” Kevin Noark, the spokesman for Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL), said.
“Both of those senators were strong supporters of the lab. But the lab has always forged a strong working relationship with [New Mexico’s congressional delegation] throughout the years, and that we do not expect to change.”
In 2007, the House approved a $400 million spending cut in funding for Los Alamos, but some of the money was restored in the Senate. With three new House members representing New Mexico, the lab’s advocates are more concerned than ever.
In the House and Senate, it is unlikely that freshman lawmakers will get to serve on the Appropriations Committee or two so-called “exclusive” committees in the House, including Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce.
“I’d be very surprised if any of the freshmen get on the exclusive committees,” Rep.-elect Martin Heinrich said.
Like most lawmakers, Heinrich and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, also a Democrat, said that they want to match their districts’ needs with their respective interests.
“I have been in discussion with leadership and [the Democratic] Steering and Policy Committee, figuring out how best to use my skill set,” Heinrich said, adding that he wants to serve on a committee that addresses the issues he ran on, including the war in Iraq and energy policy.
“A lot of different committees, Science, Armed Services, Education and Labor, Natural Resources, and Transportation have direct relevance to the 1st Congressional District,” he said.
Lujan, a member of the state’s Public Regulation Commission, said he has approached his committee assignments by trying to match those areas where New Mexico needs support and where he has the “expertise in various areas that would enable me to hit the ground running.”
While key committee assignments will help New Mexico stanch some of the loss in seniority, Bingaman, the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Udall will play a disproportionate role in protecting New Mexico’s interests.
Bingaman held a hearing on Wednesday to review investments in alternative and traditional energy projects that could be included in a stimulus package that congressional Democrats are expected to take up in early 2009.
Bingaman also serves on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which reviews all tax legislation coming out of the House Ways and Means Committee.
“A lot is going to be falling on the shoulders of Sen. Bingaman,” said Gonzales, the former Domenici staffer. “In the House, we will have very little impact in terms of appropriations committees. In terms of spending cuts at the labs, [there will be] little defense provided by freshman members.”
