Cracks Form in House Freshmen’s Class Portrait

WASHINGTON — They are defined, above all, by numbers. Seventy-three strong, they stormed the House a year ago--the shock troops of a revolution that gave Republicans control of Congress for the first time in 40 years.

Bellicose and unyielding, the GOP freshmen immediately began enacting the “contract with America,” their 10-point campaign manifesto. United, they waged war on the welfare state, abortion, “tree-huggers,” litigious lawyers and big government.

But one acrimonious, exhausting year later, as they open their reelection campaigns, the Class of ’94 risks being defined by another number: zero.

That, at least for now, may well be the end result of the freshmen’s yearlong, uncompromising obsession with producing a balanced budget in seven years.

Such a document seems a remote possibility now that House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) has all but thrown in the towel on the effort, saying that Republicans are willing to settle for only a “down payment . . . the first step” toward ending deficit spending.

In an abrupt about-face, most freshmen seem to be going along--but with great trepidation because it will tear further at their already strained class cohesion.

And today, as the battle-weary group meets for a daylong soul-searching session in Baltimore to discuss what went awry and how to regroup, at least 20 members are staying away--many because they believe the group’s in-your-face, lock-step approach to making change has become counterproductive.

“Some may peel off and become a part of the establishment,” sniffed Rep. Dave Weldon (R-Fla.), a hard-liner.

But another freshman, Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), argued that the time has come for first-termers to stop acting like “a raucous bunch of naysayers.”

Added Rep. Sonny Bono (R-La Quinta): “We should now just meld into the total Congress. At a certain point, the class interests diminish--and can conflict with that of the total Congress.” Bono, who is boycotting the Baltimore session, said that there are 40 to 50 freshmen “who don’t share my feelings, but most of the rest do.”

Rep. Mark Edward Souder (R-Ind.), a strong advocate of maintaining ideological purity among the freshmen, blames the emerging class rift in part on Gingrich.

“There’s some disagreement in the class--but some of it has been encouraged by a leadership that isn’t happy to see our independence,” fumed Souder, class vice president.

Because of the nascent dissension, many freshmen now intend to cement their ties with the 40-plus members of the little-heralded sophomore GOP class, most of whom are equally committed to the causes championed by the newcomers--if not more so.

Indeed, more than a dozen second-term House Republicans plan to attend the Baltimore session, organized by the Heritage Foundation and Empower America, two influential, conservative think tanks.

Together, the two blocs are likely to emerge from the conference with fresh resolve not only to end deficit spending but to escalate efforts to terminate certain government agencies, enact campaign finance reform and tackle an array of social issues ranging from abortion restrictions to immigration reform.

Although the freshman class has not won the contest over a balanced-budget agreement, it can rightfully claim credit for what amounts to a sea change in the nature of the dialogue over deficit spending.

“What they did was reverse the direction of the policy debate,” said David Mason, Heritage’s vice president of government relations.

“In the fall of 1994, everybody was talking about nationalizing health care,” Mason said. “Today, we’re talking about balancing the budget and downsizing government. I don’t think that’s likely to be reversed in the foreseeable future.”

Thomas E. Mann, a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution, has a similar analysis. “It may be that as a class, the freshmen already have had their greatest impact. And that’s why it probably doesn’t make much sense to think and act as a class anymore.”

No one can dispute that the class had rare promise and influence as the term began.

Breaking all tradition, Gingrich began the year by putting many freshmen on powerful committees. And he rarely made a significant move without consulting them--including this week’s sharp change in strategy on the budget negotiations.

The freshmen returned the favor by voting with Gingrich more than 92% of the time. Yet they didn’t hesitate to challenge--and even defy--Gingrich from time to time.

Their most notable clash with Gingrich was in October, when Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), chairman of the Appropriations Committee, kicked first-termer Mark W. Neumann (R-Wis.) off a defense panel for refusing to support a funding measure.

En masse, angry freshmen rose to Neumann’s defense, forcing Gingrich and Livingston to beat a partial retreat. They gave Neumann another plum assignment instead--membership on the Budget Committee--instead of restoring him to Appropriations.

The freshmen’s most controversial move has been their unwavering demand for a seven-year balanced budget. And even though they have taken a drubbing at the polls because of it, many point to their intransigence as a badge of honor--proof, they say, of their commitment to “an honest” balanced budget without “smoke and mirrors.”

“I think we’ll be seen as those who pushed for a balanced budget,” said Rep. Linda Smith (R-Wash.). “I think history will show that this was a beginning.”

Mann said that the differences now surfacing among freshmen deal largely with strategy and tactics and he predicted “that will increasingly be the case as the class begins to focus on other issues.”

While balancing the budget remains a central issue, Neumann said, it “is the only one that unites us all. All other issues--they are significant to different elements of the group.”

Such diverging positions on the budget should not be surprising, according to Mann. “The Republicans are taking a lot of heat now. They are not handling the budget end-game well. And some are getting very worried,” he said.

Mann said that he expects the freshmen to focus primarily on two central issues. One is campaign finance reform. “That will be a real test for them,” he said.

“The second is to end the budget wars with more than just a campaign issue--so that they actually have something to show that they made a difference,” Mann said. “If there’s neither finance reform nor any real achievement from the budget battle, they will be seen by the public as another disappointment.”

But Republican strategists say that the absence of a budget agreement can work to the party’s favor in November--particularly for the freshmen.

Ed Gillespie, a top GOP political operative, said Republicans “will be able to say to the voters: Send us back, give us a Republican president, and we’ll get the job done.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

An Unfinished Contract

When they took control of the House last January, Republican lawmakers promised to act within 100 days on the 10 planks of the GOP’s “contract with America.” With one exception, congressional term limits, the House passed all major contract provisions. But only a handful have become law. Several have yet to emerge from the Senate, others are caught in the budget impasse between the White House and Congress. Here’s a scorecard:

STATUS OF THE MEASURE

Budget: Balanced-budget amendment

House: Passed

Senate: Rejected

*

Budget: Line-item legislation

House: Passed

Senate: Passed*

*

Crime: Anti-crime legislation

House: Passed

Senate: Hasn’t acted

*

Welfare: Block grants, benefit caps

House: Passed

Senate: Passed

President: Vetoed

*

Families: Parental consent on surveys of children

House: Passed

Senate: Hasn’t acted

*

Families: Adoption tax credits

House: Passed

Senate: Passed

President: Vetoed

*

Families: Sex crime penalties

House: Passed

Senate: Passed

President: Signed

*

Families: Child support enforcement

House: Passed

Senate: Passed

President: Veto threatened

*

Taxes: Middle-class tax cuts

House: Passed

Senate: Passed

President: Vetoed

*

Defense: U.N. peace-keeping limits

House: Passed

Senate: Hasn’t acted

*

Elderly: Social Security changes

House: Passed

Senate: Passed

President: Vetoed

*

Business: Capital gains tax cut

House: Passed

Senate: Passed

President: Vetoed

*

Business: Unfunded mandate limits

House: Passed

Senate: Passed

President: Signed

*

Business: Federal paperwork limits

House: Passed

Senate: Passed

President: Signed

*

Business: Cost-benefit analyses

House: Passed

Senate: Hasn’t acted

*

Legal: Product liability limits

House: Passed

Senate: Passed*

*

Legal: Shareholder lawsuit limits

House: Passed

Senate: Passed

President: Veto overridden

*

Legal: Loser-pays rule

House: Passed

Senate: Hasn’t acted

*

Term Limits: Constitutional amendment

House: Rejected

Senate: Rejected

* In conference to work out differences in the House and Senate versions