November 11th, 2006

Pombo's ambitious agenda didn't yield much in the end

By Mike Taugher, MEDIANEWS STAFF
Article Last Updated:11/11/2006 02:53:42 AM PST
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_4643211

Four years ago, the stars were aligned perfectly for Rep. Richard Pombo.

The Tracy Republican (CA-R) had just leapfrogged several colleagues to become head of the House Resources Committee, where he was ideally situated to accomplish his top priority: severely weaken one of the nation's strongest environmental laws.

Not only did he gain jurisdiction over the Endangered Species Act, he now presided over federally-owned lands and environmental laws important to his allies in the ranching, timber and energy industries.

And whatever legislation he could usher through the House of Representatives would go to a GOP-controlled Senate and a Republican president.

But as Pombo's congressional career comes to an unexpected close with his loss Tuesday to Democrat Jerry McNerney, what is remarkable is how little he accomplished in seven terms.

Whether it was rewriting the Endangered Species Act, opening the ArcticNational Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling, rewriting Indian gaming law, privatizing public lands or easing restrictions on offshore oil drilling, few, if any, of Pombo's priorities are law.

"The approach that he took was controversial and combative enough that he wasn't going to get much enacted," said Norman Ornstein, a leading congressional expert at the American Enterprise Institute.

Ornstein, co-author of a new book on Congress called "The Broken Branch," said that in 37 years of studying Congress this was the worst he has seen. The "do-nothing"

80th Congress famously taunted by President Harry S. Truman in 1948 accomplished far more by comparison, he said.

"This was truly a do-nothing Congress," Ornstein said. "This one deserves the name and he was a big part of it."

Pombo was unavailable for an interview, but spokesman Brian Kennedy listed what he considered the congressman's most significant achievements as chairman:

A deal he made in 2003 with Sen. Dianne Feinstein to pass the Healthy Forests Restoration Act, which made it more difficult for environmentalists to oppose forest-thinning and logging on national forests.

A 2004 bill, also largely the product of a deal between Pombo and Feinstein, to continue federal participation in a state-and-federal water and ecosystem program centered on the Delta.

Provisions included in a sweeping 2005 Energy Bill, including reduced regulatory burdens on energy companies wanting to extract oil and natural gas on federal land.

"There were a number of priorities that we were not able to get over the finish line," Kennedy said. "Had we been able to retain the majority, I think we could have gotten something over the finish line."

Kennedy predicted that an agreement on offshore oil drilling would be reached during the coming lame-duck session.

Observers attributed Pombo's failure to pass major legislation to two factors: the Senate's traditionally cautious approach and Pombo's tendency to go too far.

"He never did figure out how to work with the Senate," said Daniel Weiss, chief of staff to Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez. "He never did learn how to legislate."

Carl Pope, a bitter critic of Pombo and executive director of the Sierra Club, said that Pombo's refusal to compromise even prevented bills that environmentalists did not like from passing. For example, a Senate bill would have allowed more offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but Pombo refused to consider the bill because it did not allow enough oil and gas drilling, Pope said.

"We actually would have more (off-shore) drilling in the Gulf of Mexico if Pombo was willing to compromise, but he wasn't," Pope said.

"He didn't accomplish anything. His legacy is empty," Pope said.

Pombo first ran for Congress in 1992 after a stint on the Tracy City Council. His mission: to dismantle the endangered species law, which he viewed as unfair to landowners because of the restrictions it placed on land use to protect plants and animals.

Two years later, Republicans took control of Congress and incoming House Speaker Newt Gingrich tapped Pombo to co-chair a task force charged with revamping the Endangered Species Act. Pombo returned with a plan to upend the law, which is widely viewed as among the nation's strongest environmental laws.

The bill went nowhere.

"Gingrich wouldn't even bring it to the floor because it was too radical," Weiss said.

But in 2003, Pombo got a second chance. Rep. James Hansen, R-Utah, retired, leaving a vacancy at the head of the committee Pombo most coveted. With the help of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, Pombo was elevated to the post over more senior members.

In September 2005, Pombo unveiled his new rewrite of the Endangered Species Act, and in a matter of days pushed it through his committee and the full House.

It was the most important bill of Pombo's career. But environmentalists accused him of rushing it through the House before it could be properly analyzed. And they accused him of obfuscating what the bill would actually do.

The bill, called the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act, would have eliminated critical habitat designations, loosened the standard used to analyze whether species are "jeopardized" by building projects and temporarily exempted endangered species rules covering the use of pesticides.

It also would have provided financial incentives to landowners who improve habitat for endangered species while making it easier for landowners to develop land in ways that would be restricted under current law.

Once it passed the House, Pombo's began hammering on the Senate to pass his bill.

Although the bill is not technically dead until the end of this congressional session, it was clear by March that the bill was going nowhere in the Senate. A key senator was concerned that even if moderate amendments to the endangered species law passed the Senate, those provisions would be "Pombo-ized" when the House and Senate versions were reconciled.

In an ironic twist, the senator who blocked the Pombo endangered species law, Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., also lost his bid for re-election Tuesday.