A Neumann in Town
Killian, Linda
A Neumann in Town by Linda Killian It's usually not wise to get into a screaming fight with the chairman of a powerful House committee if you are a lowly freshman congressman, but it seems to be...
...He'll get it back when the first opening comes up or at the beginning of the next Congress, whichever comes first, and he will not lose any seniority...
...If he wants to be a radical or a revolutionary," says Kasich with a smile, "he'll have to get in line behind me...
...The freshman leaders didn't waste any time...
...That day, Newt Gingrich called Neumann to his office to smooth the freshman's ruffled feathers...
...Then they assembled the rest of the class...
...He was joined in his "no" vote by more than 120 Republicans, including 54 of the 73 freshmen...
...The next day, Peter Hoekstra, a Republican sophomore from Michigan, magnanimously offered to give up his seat on Budget to make room for Neumann...
...Neumann earned his way into the House on his third try, spending $1.2 million of the money he made as a homebuilder in Wisconsin...
...Instead, they went to Gingrich...
...He brought that tenacity with him to the House, and has proved a thorn in the leadership's side due to his I'm-more-of-a-budget-hawk-than-you-are attitude...
...His fight with Livingston, however, had not been about money...
...Neumann signed the conference report...
...His relationship with Appropriations Committee chairman Robert Livingston has been a rocky one-so rocky that on Sept...
...Two weeks later, on Oct...
...On his way out of Gingrich's office, Neumann bumped into Linda Smith of Washington...
...troops to Bosnia to enforce a peace agreement unless Congress first gave its approval...
...First they met with Majority Leader Dick Armey to let him know there was a problem...
...Mostly, I listened...
...He told her the story...
...When the delegation arrived at Gingrich's office, only a few hours after they had first learned of the matter, the speaker and Livingston were already going at it over a harshly worded Appropriations Committee press release announcing Neumann's reassignment and accusing him of breaking a pledge to "work in support of the panel's business...
...A Neumann in Town by Linda Killian It's usually not wise to get into a screaming fight with the chairman of a powerful House committee if you are a lowly freshman congressman, but it seems to be working out well for Mark Neumann...
...Mark Souder of Indiana pulled class president Roger Wicker aside and told him, "This can't happen...
...That would have been that, were it not for the intercession of Neumann's fellow freshmen...
...It was over a Neumann amendment to the defense appropriations bill that would have prohibited the president from sending U.S...
...The speaker explained "how it would be important for me to accept this and move on," Neumann says of the meeting...
...deployment in Bosnia...
...Before that tally, Neumann went to Livingston's office to ask the chairman if he knew anything about a military contractor who had suggested he wouldn't help Neumann with fundraising if he voted against the defense appropriations bill...
...She alerted some of the other GOP freshmen about what was going on...
...The freshman delegation told Gingrich and Livingston that tensions were running high...
...At this point we were trying to work out something and not blow up the place," Souder says...
...She is currently writing a book on the House freshmen...
...As for what kind of a member of the Budget Committee he'll be, Neumann may have found his match in its outspoken chairman, John Kasich...
...29, Livingston exploded at Neumann and hollered so loudly that the Capitol police came running to find out what the disturbance was about...
...11, Neumann received a letter from Livingston informing him that he was being demoted in the ranks of Appropriations from the national security subcommittee to the less powerful subcommittee on military construction...
...In acting as a go-between for the leadership and the freshmen, Hoekstra says he was just trying to be a problem solver and avert an ugly rift at a time with some difficult votes coming up...
...The freshmen considered asking the entire House Republican membership to vote on Neumann's reassignment...
...He's also been put in charge of planning strategy for the House Republicans and congressional reform efforts...
...Livingston gets to save face, Neumann winds up with two choice committee assignments, the leadership quickly and quietly resolves a potentially serious problem, and the freshmen emerge with more clout than ever...
...The amendment passed the House on a voice vote but was removed in the conference between the House and Senate...
...Hoekstra will give up his Budget seat at the end of the year, but only temporarily...
...And he made it clear he would be voting against the measure when it came back to the House-a rare act for a conferee...
...The veiled suggestion that Livingston was responsible for this intimidation was what provoked the chairman's rage, which was not calmed by an apology from Neumann...
...Livingston wanted to know if the freshmen would be satisfied if Neumann got one of the three Appropriations spots on the Budget Committee...
...This was just a bump in the road," Hoekstra says...
...Linda Killian is the former editor of National Public Radio's "All Things Considered...
...But next to his name, he added this clause: "except to the agreement regarding U.S...
Vol. 1 • October 1995 • No. 7
