E&E Publishing

HOUSE: Barton ‘confident’ of chairing energy panel if GOP wins (10/28/2010)

Katherine Ling, E&E reporter

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) today vowed he will be the next chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee if Republicans win control of the House.

“If that happens, the Republican Steering Committee, which I’m a member of, would nominate to the full conference, and I am confident that I will be nominated. And I am confident, hopefully, that the conference would confirm me to be chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee,” Barton told CNBC.

Barton’s bold words are part of an unusually public campaign he is waging to retain the top GOP spot on the powerful committee. Barton has reached the end of his six-year term limit as top Republican on the committee, but he is petitioning for an exception to the GOP rule.

The committee will be the front line in a battle to challenge U.S. EPA’s authority on impending air pollution and waste regulations and to change or repeal the Democrats’ health care reform bill next year.

Repealing the health care measure would be his first priority, Barton said, but he will also work quickly to hold EPA accountable. Barton said EPA was “the empty-promises agency.”

“They’ve promised all this green revolution, but what they’re -- what they’re actually delivering is loss of jobs. The cap-and-trade bill, had it become law, would have cost millions of jobs. So you could expect us to aggressively review the endangerment finding if we’re in the majority,” he said.

EPA found in 2009 that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and that the agency has jurisdiction to regulate them under the Clean Air Act.

Barton made similar promises earlier this week in an editorial where he laid out his plan for oversight of EPA and the White House Council on Environmental Quality, along with the Health and Human Services Department, if he obtains the committee gavel (Greenwire, Oct. 27).

Barton made no excuses for his many controversial remarks, including an apology he made to BP PLC last summer when the White House demanded the company set up a $20 billion fund to pay for damages from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“I’m a Texan, I’m an engineer, I’m an Aggie engineer, I’m an honest person, I speak the truth as I know it. Sometimes that’s good. Sometimes it does ruffle feathers,” he said.

Lobbyists question whether Barton has ruffled too many feather at this point to remain at the top of the committee, especially in the eyes of GOP leadership.

But despite the hostility from Republican leadership after the BP apology, Barton said his relationship with House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is “in good repair.”

“I’m also a team player. I have worked very hard with Leader Boehner and Whip [Eric] Cantor [of Virginia] and Conference Chairman [Mike] Pence [of Indiana] and the entire Republican Conference to, as you put it, mend the fences. I think the fences are in good repair,” Barton said.

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee, is the leading contender to become chairman of the full committee if Barton’s request for an exception is not granted and the Republicans win control of the House. Upton has indicated that he would only step up if Barton is not granted an extension (Greenwire, Oct. 19).

Reporter Elana Schor contributed.

Broadcasting and Cable

Barton Pledges Strong Oversight of FCC

Seeks to “clean up the mess” of Obama administration if reclaims House chairmanship

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/28/2010 1:42:33 PM
If Republicans win back the House, as many are predicting, and if Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Tex.) gets to reclaim the chairmanship, expect vigorous oversight of federal agencies, including the FCC.

Barton signaled just that in an op-ed in the Washington Times Thursday. He is among a number of Republicans known to be interested in the job, including former Communications Subcommittee Chair Fred Upton (R-Mich.), a big fund-raiser for the party, and Cliff Stearns, current ranking member on the Communications subcommittee.

That means look for hearings and information requests on a host of issues. One of the ten things he has pledged to “uncover” in the first six months of next year is “why the Obama administration’s Federal Communications Commission thinks the Internet needs federal government regulation for the first time.” He called getting the answer one of the ways to “start cleaning up the mess.” He is also eyeing hearings on healthcare and environmental policy.

Barton and other Republicans refused to sign off on a compromise network neutrality bill being encouraged by the FCC and pushed by Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). Separately, the FCC has proposed expanding and codifying its open Internet principles once it has more clearly established its Internet oversight authority.

“Congress’ oversight function is not a license to bully political opponents,” Barton wrote, but he also said that “Our first job will be to find out what’s gone wrong. That’s why the return of vigorous congressional oversight is going to be a top priority for me and the committee next year.”

He did not overtly call it payback, but he did point out that at the end of the Bush administration, the Democrats engaged in “furious oversight” that he said became less enthusiastic when a Democratic president took over.

A Republican committee staffer speaking on background said to also expect similar vigorous oversight of issues including the broandband stimulus spending and build-outs under National Telecommunications & Information Administration and Agriculture Department programs, as well as on Universal Service Reform and privacy.