WASHINGTON REPORT: Minutes of the Meeting
Sisyphus
WASHINGTON REPORT MINUTES OF THE MEETING There is a phase in the passage of a piece of legisla-tion, a bill, that is known in the Congress as a "mark-up." This is an occasion when members of a...
...These days the energy problem is a major legislative concern...
...Until recently, "mark-up" sessions of a committee have been held in executive session...
...We gave a tax credit yesterday to slurry pipelines, but they compete strongly with railroads...
...In the course of these open mark-ups, outsiders attending got a feel and a whiff of what had been going on all these years during mark-ups behind closed doors, The dis-cussions in public give a sense of the legislative process that is absent from the learned who vainly seek to make a "science" out of politics: As reported, several of the exchanges are instructive: 1. (in context of whether to make the mark-up a closed meeting) Senator Brock (R-Tenn...
...And, consequently, the David Harums of the Committee, including its cap-able chairman, Senator Long of Louisiana, found them-selves doing business in public-accepting, contesting, rejecting amendments and language changes...
...Should it te completely rewritten and then be reported (for-warded) as a "clean" bill to the "full body," that is the House of Representatives or the Senate, as the case may be...
...But reformers, mem-bers of Congress and non-members alike, have for a long time pointed a finger at mark-up sessions as one place where the real action is, more meaningful as to the shaping of a bill than the open committee hearings where testimony of witnesses is taken...
...Senator Brock-Can't we leave anything to the market mechanism...
...Major pieces of social legislation customarily also undergo considerable revision -civil rights, social security and health care bills, for example...
...During discussions in the "mark-up" in the Finance Committee, its members agreed to include in the House-passed bill tax-credits for business-men and home-owners who would install better insula-tion or install alternate energy usage such as solar-heating equipment or install recycling equipment for materials such as paper, etc...
...4. Senator Long-Floyd (Senator Haskell, D-Colo...
...2. Senator Nelson (D-Wis...
...A major tax bill is one such category of legis-lation that receives considerable going-over within the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, usually identified in the newspapers as "the tax-writing committees...
...Support for opening the doors and letting the sun shine in has now resulted in mark-up sessions being held in public...
...SISYPHUSDavid Harums just whittlin' away...
...People have a right to see what we've done...
...Maybe we should ob-tain a list of subscribers to the Wall Street Journal, broken down by state, so as to see what special interests they represent...
...So we should give a corresponding tax break to recyclers...
...5. Senator Long-If you took away the depletion allowance for virgin materials there'd be the greatest depression ever seen...
...I don't want to drive these meetings behind closed doors...
...He won't buy one, regardless of any tax credit...
...The conference"- meeting of House and Senate members in an effort to work out a mutually acceptable version of a bill ap-proved in differing forms by the two branches of the Congress-is a crucial legislative arena still darkened and in need of "sunshine...
...has never yet voted for an investment credit...
...We've been distorting the market mechanism all day yesterday with all the other tax credits...
...So today we have to give another credit to railroads...
...Because the bill sought to accom-plish this objective by means of tax-credits ("tax-breaks") for an assortment of actions, the bill, when it came to the Senate from the House, was assigned to the Finance Committee...
...I assume that's someone we've just shot down...
...Senator Haskell-What we're saying is one good loop-hole deserves another...
...SISYPHUS...
...This is an occasion when members of a legislative committee sit down together after hearings on the bill and decide whether the bill should be altered...
...There are lobbyists (present) on both sides of an issue-for example, Common Cause people...
...3. During discussion of a tax-break for those replacing inefficient residential furnaces, Senator MondaleWe should also give a credit for installing home thermostats...
...Senator Gravel (D-Alaska)-So what...
...David Harums just whittlin' away...
...Of the several hundred bills, among the thousands introduced, that are actually reported during the two-year life of a Congress to either the full House or Senate, relatively few substantive changes are made...
...Senator Long, chairman, bantering-Well, Gaylord (Nelson), I'll be happy to give you that one, but I'll expect you to exchange that for your support for the next tax credit we're about to discuss...
...Or should the bill, on which testimony has been taken, be simply altered...
...And this brings us back to mark-up sessions of the Finance Committee as its members recently discussed the House-passed energy bill...
...Some of these bills are passed by voice vote when only a few members are present in either the House or Senate...
...Senator Dole-We've given away an awful lot of money here with tax credits and refundable tax credits...
...In June of this year, the House passed a bill, H.R...
...Senator Dole-What about those too poor to pay taxes...
...Someday he'll perhaps decide that because everyone else is getting one, he'll vote for one for some group in Colorado...
...Someone is laughing in the back row...
...A motion was made to close the doors but it had failed...
...Senator Brock-You're not going to help the home-owner if he doesn't have $1500 to buy a new furnace...
...A majority of a legislative committee, depending on the rules of each, may vote either to close or open a mark-up session, but a more alert informed public, in.part due to Common Cause-ers, has resulted in a reluctance to hold closed mark-ups...
...Bills designed to help matters in this area are receiving considerable going over in the mark-up sessions...
...Senator Long-Let's make this a refundable tax cred-it (If a person pays no taxes, he still gets a payment from the Federal Government if he installs an efficient furnace...
...Are we going to raise any revenue...
...Senator Mondale (D-Minn...
...Senator Haskell-That's the problem...
...6860, designed to encourage the best utiliza-tion of energy and, conversely, to discourage wasteful or extravagant usage...
...Senator Dole (R-Kan...
...In my absence the Committee adopted a tax break for railroads, but omitted railroad over-water ferries-such as one operating in Wisconsin...
...And, if so, which existing provisions should be retained "as is," which existing provisions should be "dropped" (deleted) and should "new language" (provisions) be added...
Vol. 102 • September 1975 • No. 14
