Show I House committees Ily Helene C Washington-Some major changes have been made In the committees and subcommittees in the House with major jurisdiction over programs and problems of particular interest to the The committees are Public Works all headed by Morris Thomas S. and Harold T. All won near-unanimous reappointment as committee The changes are particularly In the House Interior Don H. has succeeded Joe who as ranking minority member of Although Clausen has a reputation for being he has vowed to take a more active role as ranking minority member than He already No Democrat wanted to take over the chairmanship of an Indian Affairs so the Democrats on the committee voted to transfer jurisdiction over Indian Affairs to the full Republicans strenuously but lost on a narrow at the organization meeting last Clausen has been talking to Indian leaders in his Northern California district and soon will be talking to other Indian leaders about how they want their legislation Clausen told Western Resources Wrap-up on 13 he is interested in providing block grants to Indian tribes to carry out for themselves work now being done by the Bureau of Indian They would be similar to the block grants now made to counties and Udall has talked of setting up special ad hoc task forces to deal with specific Indian Obviously this is a problem still INTERIOR COMMITTEE CHANGES Abraham has taken over as chairman of the Water and Power Resources Subcommittee in place of the retired Lloyd Manuel continues as ranking Republican Hearings schedule ed by this subcommittee on 19 in on a rate boost by the Bonneville Power Administration and how its power is This could result in a public private power Another hot potato that the Kazen Subcommittee will take up are Administration proposals backed by environmental and social-action groups to revise the limitation in the reclamation This is an extremely complex issue not easily resolved because there are already so many exemptions and partial exemptions to the It is strongly opposed by most irrigation districts receiving water from Bureau of Reclamation including the farmers and ranchers in the Rio Grande Project of Texas and New As both the subcommittee chairman and ranking GOP member are from these the Administration will have difficulty getting a bill through this The Kazen subcommittee must also consider and report out by May 15 bills to authorize the programs of the controversial Water Resources Council and the power marketing agencies outside of which operates on a self-financed revolving If it is to meet the Congressional budget deadline by May new legislation should also be reported out by that date on the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project in California and on lifting the ceiling on the Colorado River salinity Portions of the package to implement the President's new water policy may come before the Kazen including state NO CHANGE MINING LAW SEEN Jim succeeds Kazen as chairman of the Mines and Mining and Don succeeds the retired Philip E. as ranking That appears to end any consideration of a major revamping of the 1972 Mining Law which has been strongly favored by the Administration and environmental groups but even more strongly opposed by small Small miners in the Southern Arizona district of Committee Chairman Udall started a recall petition against him a couple of years ago for advocating updating this ancient The recall petition and Udall still favors some changes to update the but this is not a priority legislative item with Udall any The Santini will look at the policy review of the Administration on non-fuel but that's about all on the agenda John P who has strong backing from environmental is the new chairman of the Public Lands succeeding the retired Teto whose subcommittee jurisdiction included Indian lands as successfully shed Indian lands in taking over the Public Lands chief concern is to push for more wilderness than the U.S. Forest Service recommended as a result of its RARE II study and to keep an eye on the wilderness study now being conducted by the Bureau of Land A legislative jurisdictional battle is in prospect between the subcommittee in Interior and the Forests Subcommittee chaired by James in the House Agriculture The Administration is expected to send its legislative proposals to Congress this spring on implementing the recommendations of the Forest Service and Agriculture Secretary Bob Bergland resulting from the RARE II Both subcommittees want to handle this As Interior subcommittees have handled all wilderness legislation to subcommittee appears to have a distinct edge in this upcoming Environmentalists want to win the while public land users favor input from the Weaver Both subcommittees held a joint briefing on 14 on the Agriculture-Forest Service RARE II James P. is the ranking Republican on both so he will have a major input in any To the extent that a Republican's voice will be he recently He pointed out that the Public Lands Subcommittee is Democratic and the Forest Subcommittee has a ratio of Democrats to Harold replaces as chairman of the Oversight and Special Investigations with somewhat more oversight responsibilities than this subcommittee had in the last It is likely to look into recent charges that federally owned coal has been mined in Alabama without the miners paying any royalties to the which holds the subsurface rights to the Indicating the importance that the t subcommittee is the fact that ranking Republican on the full is also ranking Republican on the Oversight He replaces who was ranking Republican on it last Congress when it had jurisdiction over Alaska ENERGY IN UDALL SUBCOMMITTEE Udall continues as chairman of the Energy and Environment where Steven D. replaced Robert E. as ranking went to the prestigious House Rules Udall has already started hearings on the nuclear waste problem and he is planning to take up a new nuclear licensing and bill as soon as it is sent to Congress by the Other subjects which the Udall subcommittee will likely look into after the authorization bills for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Department of Energy are out of the way include nuclear enrichment energy supplies and alternative sources of the languishing petroleum natural gas shipments from the ban on exporting Alaskan oil to and possibly oil and gas pricing and rationing if the current energy crunch continues to Of some of these subjects are shared jurisdiction with other notably the House Commerce The National Parks and Insular Affairs Subcommittee continues to be chaired by Phillip one of the most influential members of the House as well as the Interior with Keith G. continuing as ranking Republican The big news relative to this subcommittee is that it gave up its jurisdiction over Pacific which was made into a new subcommittee chaired by delegate Antonio Borja Won Pat of Robert is the ranking Republican member of this new So while the American Indians no longer have a residents of the Pacific islands under the American flag have a newly created one to handle their FULL COMMITTEE MAKE-UP The entire Interior Committee is holding hearings on the Alaska lands bill which would designate 85 million acres In the state of Alaska as national wildlife refuges and It plans to move the bill Udall would like to take up the coal slurry pipe-line bill again this and it may be taken up in full committee that has not yet been according to committee Both measures cleared the committee In the last Congress but failed to get through the legislative The House Interior Committee this year has 43 as compared to 46 in the last Udall would like to cut it back further to make it more All but one of the 15 Republicans on the Committee are from 17 Western but only 10 out of 28 of the Democrats are from the Western half of the Udall told he pushed for more Western Democrats on the committee and all three Democratic vacancies went to Jerry M. Ray and Pat D Six three Democrats and three serve on the So do two representatives from New Kansas and Texas and the sole representatives of Nevada and Dick is regarded as a AGRICULTURE PUBLIC WORKS Chairman Foley began hearings this week on the demands of the representatives here of the American Agriculture Movement for raising the price support levels for soybeans and cotton to 90 percent of parity But the committee is not expected to act on any major revision of the farm law this according to several The last major farm act was passed in 1977 and it will not expire until Top priority in the committee is to report out a domestic sugar price support which will be tied to ratification of the International Sugar Agreement on which the Senate must act not later than June House Agriculture shares jurisdiction over sugar legislation with the House Ways and Means and Foley and Chairman Al of the House Way's and Means Committee introduced new sugar legislation this Last year's conference report on the sugar bill was voted down by the A new crop insurance bill is the only other piece of farm legislation given an outside chance of getting through the committee and Congress this the Congressional Agriculture Committees have been the preserves of the South and This is still Seventeen out of the 42 members of the committee are from the 17 Along with heavy representation from Iowa and neighboring states and the the committee includes four three Texans and two California of the top agricultural state in the and there are two new Californians on the including Tony who is regarded as a He succeeded the retired Agriculture has also been cut back from 46 members in the Congress to 42 members this But the trend is up for the House Public Works and Transportation which will have 48 members when it is at full as compared to 43 in the last Chairman Johnson told the increase was requested by the House Democratic leadership to assure each freshman a major committee assignment and because of the heavy legislative schedule that the committee will have this of interest to many The hottest proposal before the committee is the Administration proposal to deregulate trucks and Other measures coming up for renewal this year are the programs of the Economic Development the seven regional planning the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Safe Drinking Water All expire on The Administration wants some minor changes in the Clean Water Act passed last including an extension of the time that states and communities can use federal grants for sewage treatment The committee plans to act on a new civil works program for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers because its bill failed to pass last Noise aid to airports and air terrorism are other subjects to be taken up by the committee this Johnson On government reorganization and the Administration's new water Johnson said the committee has no plans at the present time to get |