Caucus Crazy

...That year, as The New York Times reported, the group got Sen...

...still others such as the Hispanic Caucus focus on a people...

...No doubt we should keep some Guard troops, the question is just how many...

...It's advertising," says Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University...

...As Congress evolved, Washington saw an explosion in the growth of special interest groups...

...These guys make the NRA look like amateurs," says the Brookings Institution's Martin Binkin...

...Mr...

...And when burritos hit the headlines, journalists will light up your switchboard...

...A representative from the seventh district of Pennsylvania, Weldon is the founder of the Fire Services and Safety Caucus...

...Petersburg residents are in a huff, which perhaps explains Bilirakis' position...

...Or the Footwear Caucus which, before nearly every manufacturer it represented sent factories oversees, also pushed for import quotas on shoes...

...In 1965, the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) had less than a million members...

...As special interests flourished, and as Congress became more responsive to outside pressure as it spread power around, caucuses sprouted everywhere...

...A caucus adds a pernicious twist to Olson's ageless verity: it turns the members of Congress themselves into lobbyists...

...Boehlert wants the exemption in situ because he has several minor league teams near him and believes that changing the law would cause the majors to financially abandon those teams...

...The point is not to discuss the travails of the inner city or the ongoing fight against discrimination...

...The Thunderdome is teamless today, and St...

...per majority of 70 members in the Senate, making it the chamber's largest...

...To see how this works, consider the deal a small group of sugar refiners won for themselves back in 1987...

...You've arrived in Washington anxious to make your mark, hoping, especially, to do right by the hundreds of constituents who earn their paychecks from Taco Bell...

...He bought a used fire truck and started driving it in hometown St...

...The system is now rigged so that each member has reason to kick and scrap in the government pantry for any goodie that can be grabbed, regardless of what that might mean for the country as a whole...

...Mike Bilirakis, on the other hand, hates the antitrust exemption...

...The Congressional Black Caucus was created back in the mid-seventies to combine the strength of black members, who at that time and until just recently were meager in number...

...What are you going to do...

...At their worst, then, the logic of caucuses is simply the logic of pork writ large...

...Curt was able to meet a bunch of members through this issue and build bridges that he was able to use on other issues," says aide David Hackett...

...The good news for you is that now you can correspond with the Agriculture Committee leaders using your new Taco Caucus letterhead which, with any luck, sports the names of something like 87 members of Congress...

...Caucuses like the Guard's—there are now about 40 others in the House and Senate—are superbly emblematic of this special interest problem, and they also exacerbate it...

...If lawmakers' offices used to be local branches of a national franchise—with prices and policy largely set by headquarters—now they are independent corner grocers...

...If someone writes me on arts issues, I can write back and say, 'I'm in the Congressional Arts Caucus.'" That's why most reps belong to a handful of caucuses, although some, like Rep...

...In other words, these soldiers are about one-third as well trained and about one-third as capable as their active counterparts, making them less than ideal for both rapid deployment (it takes them weeks to get ready) and peacekeeping missions (it takes training to know when not to shoot)—precisely the kind of missions we're likely to need them for in the coming years...

...in different ways, they all benefited from a longer day...

...As Mancur Olson points out, from the standpoint of ambitious politicians who want to keep their jobs, this kind of myopia makes a perverse sense...

...The typical congressional district is one-435th of the country," Olson explains...

...Petersburg, Florida, a town which constructed a 45,000 seat stadium called the Thunderdome in hopes of attracting a major league baseball team...

...When 337 members signed up to join, Weldon carved out a nifty little niche in the House as the Fire Guy...

...As lonathan Rauch points out in Demosclerosis, this rate of growth means that in the decades between 1970 and 1990, ten new associations arrived in Washington each week...

...And decidedly, these stores are of the full service variety...

...Those with major league teams in town love the exemption because they aren't anxious to see their teams leave...

...Boehlert of New York, are a member of two handfuls...

...To network...

...Then-Rep...

...In 1956, Gale Research, Inc.'s Encyclopedia of Associations listed fewer than 5,000 associations...

...There are, after all, hundreds of accomplished, ambitious legislators around, most of whom have been there for a few years, and nearly all of whom have created an identity by becoming well known, quotable experts and sources on a few issues...

...Caucuses have subtly made that problem worse...

...The consequences of organizing a Steel Caucus, a Port Caucus, or a Suburban Caucus," argues Bur-dett Loomis, a political scientist at the University of Kansas, "are to formalize more fully the already strong representational tendencies of the Congress and to weaken further the ability of the legislative branch to act responsively toward society-wide problems...

...Here's his resume: the Northeast-Midwest Coalition, the Northeast Agriculture Caucus, the Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus, the Congressional Caucus on Women's Issues, the Organization of the New York State Congressional Delegation, the Rural Caucus, the Environmental and Energy Study Conference, the Travel and Tourism Caucus, the Arts Caucus, the Fire Services Caucus, and, as founder and chair, the Minor League Baseball Caucus...

...Rep...

...Thirty years ago, a handful of senior members sitting at the heads of large committees did most of Congress' decision-making, and the political parties themselves were able to marshal their members and offer centralized leadership...

...Worse, when you get your committee assignments you find that none of them allows you to push taco-related issues...

...The letterhead on those missives read "Congressional Guard Caucus...

...The rational member will therefore seek pork for the district...

...For instance, back in 1985 a business coalition comprised of Kingsford Charcoal, 7-Eleven stores, amusement parks, and lawn and garden outlets got together and successfully lobbied Congress to extend the months covered by daylight savings time...

...He represents St...

...Nice deal, huh...

...You're going to start a caucus...

...By 1970 there were more than 10,000, by 1980 nearly 15,000 and by 1990 more than 20,000...

...If several organized interests are affected by a reform in different ways, a tug of war ensues in which only incremental change is possible...

...The group's success during the downsizing can be understood this way: a special interest (the Guard) won itself a favor (fewer troops cut), at the expense of others (active troops...

...Petersburg offered the owner of the Giants $3 million more than San Francisco and still couldn't get the team...

...These are opportunities that a junior member of the minority party otherwise wouldn't have...

...The House and Senate are like ships whose crews can figure out what to have for dinner but can't decide where to steer the boat...

...To attract money...

...Or the tobacco growers maintaining federal crop subsidies even as the Surgeon General implicates cigarettes in the deaths of 400,000 Americans each year...

...Celebs like Spike Lee and Magic Johnson have been known to show up...

...Legislators are invariably eager to champion the blinkered causes of constituents...

...It worked for Curt Weldon...

...others, like the Mississippi Delta Caucus, focus on a region...

...The Fire Services Caucus has certainly been good to its creator...

...Today, party discipline is sporadic at best, and far more members are able to impact, block, and amend legislation...

...A seat costs $500...

...By 1990, AARP boasted a membership of more than 30 million, had a staff of 125, a budget of $3.5 million and its own zip code...

...The caucus started in 1987, but came into its own two years later when the office of Jim Wright, then-Speaker of the House, caught on fire and Weldon grabbed a fire extinguisher and helped to put it out...

...For interest groups in Washington, that kind of favoritism—with the right connections and enough lobbyists—is about as hard to get as a haircut...

...It's worth remembering that most of the Guard's ground troops called up during the Gulf War weren't combat-ready until Schwarzkopf was delivering his "Hail Mary" press conference after the fighting was over...

...It's thus a classic Washington tale, similar to auto interests keeping gas taxes pinned so low that the government has to spend hundreds of millions to keep up the highways...

...The owners of movie theaters, on the other hand, were probably less than pleased...

...The group, started by the representative from Cooperstown, N.Y., Sherwood Boehlert, exists to counter those members who think that Congress should lift major league baseball's antitrust exemption, a move which would make it easier for teams to leave town if another city made them a better offer (The last baseball team to migrate was the Seattle Pilots, who became the Milwaukee Brewers in 1970...

...Fewer people go to early shows when the sun is still up and theaters do compete with amusement parks for entertainment dollars, after all...

...Or the elderly lobby insisting that even the wealthiest retirees receive Social Security and resisting curbs on the growth of all middle class entitlement programs, programs which will cost $700 billion annually by the turn of the century if Congress doesn't intervene...

...Nobody is calling you...

...It's a fair guess that each of Congress' many caucuses has, at minimum, a kernel of justice at its core...

...Chris Smith, of the Pro-Life Caucus, netted $12,000 from the Right to Life PAC and Christians for Life...

...Most charge no dues to join, and only a few have their own staffs or offices...

...The group is the largest of them all, but its exponential rate of growth is typical...

...Not only has this led to an accretion of narrowly targeted benefits, but it has created a kind of paralysis that makes large-scale, sweeping legislative action extremely difficult...

...Joining a caucus is also a nifty way to network voters...

...In October 1992, Weldon's arrival on the radar screen was confirmed when President Bush traveled to Weldon's district to sign the commemorative coin legislation into law...

...The mandarins who rule the Ag committees don't have a good reason to cross the street to spit on your shoes, let alone look at your Salsa amendment...

...With caucuses, members spot a benefit they want, find other members who want it, and then collude to extract it from the great federal maw...

...The argument that you hear in both the House and Senate is that the country should rely more on these reserves because they cost less...

...through the 1960s, only two more groups were founded, but by the 1970s Congress was crawling with them...

...BY DAVID SEGAL Did you know that when National Guard soldiers spend two days training, they get paid for four...

...In 1992, St...

...D'Amato later got $8,500 in campaign contributions...

...Let's say you're new to Congress, and let's say your district has the nation's highest concentration of Taco Bells...

...The caucus has had its share of legislative triumphs, but in recent years its annual fundraising soiree has become as famous as its good works...

...When relevant legislation comes down the pike, you're sure to get phone calls answered...

...If there's an expenditure of federal dollars in the district, then on average the district will collect 100 percent of the benefit and pay only one-435th of the cost...

...They're less expensive, but you get what you pay for," says William Kaufman, a defense analyst and professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology...

...Alfonse D'Amato—who has a refiner in his district—to help them stitch a tariff rebate provision into a 1,000 page trade bill, a provision worth $365 million to them...

...One attendee, George Wilson of American Urban Radio, summed up the evening this way for The Washington Post: "You get the chance to hand your card around and if you talk fast get a girlfriend...

...In reality, Congress' affection for the Guard probably has less to do with cost than with constituents—Guardsmen and -women across the country who are organized and lobbied for by one of Washington's quieter, though highly effective outfits, the National Guard Association...

...You've probably never heard of it, but the caucus, orchestrated by the Guard Association, boasts a suResearch assistance for this article was provided by Scott Jones and Stryk Thomas...

...But nearly every caucus functions, in part, as a vehicle for networking, providing members with a way to meet fellow lawmakers...

...Send fellow legislators what's known on the Hill as a "Dear Colleague" letter announcing that you are creating the House Taco Caucus...

...You are a player...

...Patrick's Day parades...

...Now, what's interesting about this group is that whether a member believes the antitrust exemption is a good idea depends, with uncanny regularity, on how it would affect that member's local baseball fans...

...Senator Wendell Ford of the Senate Coal Caucus received over $20,000 from Peabody Coal and other mining companies...

...Weldon is hardly a pioneer in all this...

...But because politics is frequently a zero sum game, when a group organizes and wins itself some favorable treatment—a tax break, a subsidy, whatever—it is taking something from another group...

...It comes courtesy of the U.S...

...So why join the caucus...

...You'll soon get back a spate of sign-me-up letters...

...The Guard caucus is so large because virtually every member has reservists and armories at home, causing lawmakers to pressure the Pentagon to leave the Guard alone, even though doing so arguably makes our military less effective...

...And now that both baseball and Chevrolet have their very own caucuses, the get-mine political culture they reflect slowly, regrettably, is becoming as American as apple pie...

...In 1990, Rep...

...You get a sense of their clout from a pair of letters sent by a group of legislators to Colin Powell back in 1991, letters which basically said, "If you make deep cuts in the Guard, you'll have to come to Capitol Hill with a very good reason...

...Last year, Washingtonian, the city's local glossy, called the Congressional Black Caucus Dinner one of the town's "Galas for Gold," putting it in the company of established hobnobbing festivals like the Gridiron Dinner, the Symphony Ball, and the Helen Hayes Awards...

...Many caucuses are lightning rods for PAC dollars...

...It's easy to imagine similar effects resulting from the work of the Auto Caucus, which has pushed for foreign import quotas on behalf of Ford, Chevrolet, and GM...

...As importantly, these associations came to represent more people...

...Some of these groups are extremely active, others will be dormant for years until an issue pertinent to the group arises...

...It's not surprising that Congress passes scores of commemorative bills—Chinese Food Appreciation Week and the like—each year but has yet to hammer out a health care bill to cover the country's 37 million uninsured...

...The growth of caucuses occurred, not co-incidentally, as power in Congress became more decentralized...

...What unites these groups is their zeal in pushing some narrow interest...

...Bill Richardson of New Mexico explains: "As a member of the Arts Caucus, I can tell my constituents who are interested in the arts that I'm with them...

...there is no incentive to take the national interest into account...

...They are cheaper—about one-third cheaper—but what you don't hear is that they are a lousy value, and not just because of the two-fer pay scheme...

...Take the Minor League Baseball Caucus...

...When Edgar ascended to the chair of the NEMW Coalition, The Washington Post described the job as "a national podium which is the envy of his more anonymous colleagues...

...To become a player...

...The Arts Caucus, similarly, is popular because it allows members to sip cocktails with Hollywood stars visiting to testify on the Hill...

...The idea was slow to catch on...

...Bud Shuster, for instance, is ranking Republican on the Public Works and Transportation Committee, and Wendell Ford is chair of the Energy Research and Development subcommittee of Energy and Commerce...

...And what goes on...

...In sum, the typical congressional office these days is loaded, well staffed, and, most importantly, open for business...

...Mancur Olson, the author of The Logic of Collective Action, once wrote of the federal government that "Most redistributions are from the unorganized to the organized...

...According to Weldon aide David Hackett, "That gave him a way to meet the Speaker in a different circumstance...

...Meanwhile, the number of lawyers in Washington boomed, quadrupling between the years 1972 and 1987, and the number of corporations with a Washington office increased by a factor of ten between 1961 and 1982...

...Congress, which more recently did the Guard an even bigger favor by pressing the Pentagon to reduce Guard ground combat units more slowly than active duty troops during the military's downsizing...

...Every member this year, in addition to $133,600 in personal salary, is given $557,400 with which to hire help, an official expense allowance of $122,500, plus travel stipends, rent money for the district office, and franking privileges worth at least $200,000...

...Bud Shuster, co-chair of the Congressional Truck Caucus, collected over $32,000 in PAC contributions from the likes of Ryder, the Teamsters, and North American Van Lines...

...Most of these gentlemen received these checks because they are powerful members of relevant committees...

...Voila...

...Caucuses are thus another facet of the every-group-for-itself ethic that now pervades Washington, an ethic which has led to legions of perverse subsidies, dubious tax breaks, and a calcified government so besieged on all sides that it can barely creak into action when it attempts serious reforms...

...His group sponsored legislation calling for a new fire alarm system in congressional offices, and another bill authorized the minting and sale of the Ben Franklin Fire Service Bill of Rights silver coin...

...No doubt the refiners had to pay a hefty salary to one or several lobbyists to secure this deal, but even if the whole thing cost $30,000, that's still quite a nice return—over $12,000 for each dollar invested...

...The genesis of caucuses can be traced back to 1958, when a group of liberal Democrats founded the Democratic Study Group...

...Bob Edgar, for instance, used the Northeast-Midwest Coalition and the Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future (the members would apparently discuss policy for the next millennia) to add luster to his name...

...In the letter, state that the caucus will focus on the many topics connected to the taco industry, and personalize each letter by pointing out how many constituents are employed by Taco Bells in each member's district...

...A series of reforms in 1970s, however, spread power around on the Hill, dispersing it, primarily, to the 144 different chairmen of the chambers' various subcommittees—a lot of chiefs, considering that altogether Congress has only 535 Indians...

...Comparatively speaking, this is a whimsical debate, but organizations represented by caucuses often discover that it is more enriching—and easier—to enjoin lawmakers for a bigger piece of the federal pie than it is to expand the pie by producing more wealth...

...Belonging to the Mushroom Caucus allows a member to carry around a sandwich board that says, 'I'm one of you and I care about your problems.'" The sandwich board might also read "I care about my problems" because caucuses lay bare how politicians allow parochial interests to drive their reasoning about national policy, rather than the other way around...

...The press knows they can call them when those issues get hot...

...Making your mark, you realize not long after you've settled comfortably into your office in the Longworth building, won't be easy...

...Burrito There are three reasons for a legislator to start or join a caucus...

...Some, like the Coal Caucus, focus on one particular industry...

...Or the Northeast-Midwest Caucus which spends most of its energy examining federal formulae to prevent money from going to the Sun Belt...