Congressmen’s Agendas Focus on National Issues : Legislation: Clean air, immigration reform, videocassette copyright protection and AIDS testing are of interest to Southern California.

Among other items on his sweeping 1990 legislative agenda, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) aspires to overhaul the Clean Air Act and place stricter limits on agricultural pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables. He also hopes to require food manufacturers to provide detailed labeling of products and scientific support for health claims.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), meanwhile, is seeking immigration reform that would increase the number of visas for family members of permanent U.S. residents. He is also sponsoring a bill to ban “black boxes,” which are used to make unauthorized copies of videocassettes.

Among his modest legislative goals, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) continues to carry a measure that would empower federal courts to impose the death sentence for the killing of federal law enforcement officers. The same proposal failed to move in the last session of Congress.

These six measures are a sampling of the 54 diverse bills that the five San Fernando Valley-area members introduced this year and hope to see enacted in 1990. The proposals generally deal with national issues rather than local concerns.

Nonetheless, some of the laws--such as the Clean Air Act, immigration reform, videocassette copyright protection and Waxman’s efforts to provide early confidential AIDS testing and counseling--are of particular interest to Southern Californians.

“Obviously, these health issues have impact on my constituents as they have on people throughout the country,” said Waxman, whose 24th District includes Universal City and parts of North Hollywood and Los Feliz as well as the Beverly-Fairfax area, Hollywood and Hancock Park.

The initiatives carried in the 101st Congress by Waxman, Berman, Gallegly and by Reps. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles) and Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) reflect the lawmakers’ legislative priorities as well as their place in the Capitol Hill hierarchy.

Waxman expects to pass some of his far-reaching bills, although struggles remain over important specifics; Berman may see provisions of his immigration bill incorporated into a broad reform package and would like to move other proposals, and Beilenson hopes that his politically risky measures in favor of a tax increase and public campaign financing will at least inspire discussion.

Moorhead and Gallegly, as members of the Republican minority, face uphill battles over their narrower legislative priorities.

The Valley members’ initiatives are among 4,842 measures introduced by House members in 1989, the first year of the two-year session. Overall, 93 bills and resolutions have been enacted, which is typical of an institution that tends to creep along until adjournment approaches and then engages in a lawmaking frenzy.

Even then, most proposals fail to negotiate the legislative labyrinth. Success often comes by folding the provisions of a bill into a broader measure that appears headed for passage, persuading senior colleagues to sponsor an initiative or influencing behind-the-scenes negotiations and policy committee actions. For Republicans such as Moorhead, this may mean getting a Democrat to adopt their ideas.

And it often takes more than one session of Congress to get something done. Thus, many of the Valley-area lawmakers’ proposals are carried over from previous sessions when they failed to go anywhere.

For the third time, for instance, Beilenson is sponsoring a bill to increase the federal gasoline tax by 50 cents a gallon over a five-year period to reduce the federal deficit and another to publicly finance congressional general election campaigns. For the fourth time, he has reintroduced a measure to double the safety standard for automobile bumpers.

“They’re the sort of thing he likes to leave there so people will talk about it,” said a legislative aide to Beilenson.

After two unsuccessful attempts to expand patent protection for industrial designs of such items as luggage, telephones and automobile parts, Moorhead says that new-found backing by key colleagues and the Bush Administration may portend passage.

“I think we will get it through eventually,” Moorhead said last week. “I wouldn’t guarantee this Congress. We’re building more and more support for it all the time.”

Waxman, a legislative power as chairman of the influential health and environment subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is carrying numerous major bills and plans to introduce others.

In addition to the Clean Air, food labeling, pesticide and AIDS measures, he is pushing bills to establish standards and routine inspections of fish to detect chemical contamination; toughen the Food and Drug Administration’s oversight of medical devices; increase the number of community residential programs for the mentally retarded and authorize Medicaid to pay for home health care for the poor elderly rather than restricting coverage to nursing home costs.

Waxman said last week that he also plans to sponsor a bill to further restrict cigarette promotion and advertising and sale to minors. Stiff opposition from the powerful tobacco lobby is expected.

This is not unusual. On many of his initiatives, Waxman is opposed by the Bush Administration as well as by private industry.

A senior agriculture official testified in May that Waxman’s bill to change the standard for cancer-causing carcinogenic pesticide residue on food from a balancing of health and economic concerns to strictly health considerations would have a disastrous impact on food prices and the food supply. The measure is one of several introduced in the wake of widespread fears prompted by use of the chemical Alar on apples.

Waxman, in turn, adamantly opposes a pesticide-control bill by the White House that would tighten registration requirements and stiffen sanctions against violators but would also prevent states from imposing more stringent pesticide restrictions. Environmentalists in California are seeking to place a tough environmental initiative on the 1990 ballot that would phase out all agricultural chemicals known to cause cancer or reproductive injury by 1996.

Waxman’s subcommittee chairmanship has allowed him to assemble a large and respected staff, hold frequent hearings and aggressively pursue a liberal agenda that includes protecting consumers and fighting for benefits for the poor, elderly and infirm.

He possesses “an instinct for the legislative process that is second to none, a thorough knowledge of the rules and willingness to exploit every one and a temperament that is all but unflappable,” said the 1988 edition of “The American Almanac of Politics.”

Berman, an ally of Waxman’s, has established clout on the House Judiciary Committee, particularly on immigration and copyright issues. As a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, he also has become a player on some international matters.

This year, Berman passed a far-reaching bill that prohibits all arms sales, whether publicly known or covert, to countries placed on a so-called “terrorist list” by the secretary of state unless the President provides Congress with prior notice and detailed justification. Berman introduced the measure in response to the Iran arms sales scandal.

In an effort to prevent the spread of ballistic missiles, he also has sponsored a bill to require the President to impose sanctions against companies that export missile technology in violation of U.S. export-control laws. Under the measure, which overwhelmingly passed the House this year, foreign companies that sell this technology to countries such as Libya or Iraq would face the prospect of being cut off from U.S. Department of Defense contracts.

On immigration, as Congress moves to revise the 24-year-old U.S. visa-allotment system, Berman is pushing for expansion of visas in general and is championing the reunification of family members of those who have become permanent U.S. residents. Berman maintains this should remain the cornerstone of national immigration policy.

Others, however, have sought to shift the overall emphasis toward immigrants’ education and employment skills. This is intended to open the doors for more Western Europeans, who have been largely shut out by the current system’s bias toward regions with more recent immigrants, who thus have more immediate relatives in the United States. These regions include parts of Asia and Latin America.

Berman is also carrying a bill that he has previously introduced twice. The measure, sought by the American Civil Liberties Union, would remove the President’s authority to prohibit U.S. citizens from spending money in countries against which the United States has an economic embargo--which effectively prohibits travel to places such as Cuba, Vietnam and North Korea.

Berman passed a provision of his original bill last year that eliminated the ban on exporting and importing informational materials, such as films, newspapers and books, to and from embargoed countries.

Beilenson’s significant legislative roles are, by their very nature, low profile.

He sits on the important but largely anonymous House Rules Committee, which controls the flow of legislation and determines the limits of debate on the House floor. He is chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which provides oversight and approves the budgets for the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

Beilenson tends to be less of a force on other legislation. His tax and consumer bills have languished. His proposals to publicly finance congressional campaigns have earned him renown as an advocate but have not led to any reform yet.

Nevertheless, such efforts have contributed to Beilenson’s reputation as an independent-minded lawmaker willing to take politically unpalatable positions that are certain to wind up in election opponents’ brochures.

Beilenson did win passage last year of a long-sought measure prohibiting the import of ivory and other pachyderm parts as part of international efforts to save the threatened African elephant. Under the measure, Congress can earmark as much as $5 million a year for elephant conservation projects; $300,000 was appropriated last year. Beilenson plans to ask for $5 million again in the 1990 fiscal year, an aide said, but funding remains uncertain.

Gallegly, a two-term Republican, has yet to make a legislative mark. None of the handful of bills he sponsored in his three years has passed.

This year, he picked up additional bipartisan support for his measure to authorize the death penalty for killers of police, judges and other law enforcement officials. Similar bills had previously stalled in committees but Gallegly maintained his was more narrowly drawn.

He also sponsored a bill to deny federal student financial aid to individuals convicted of desecrating the American flag. It remains in the House Committee on Education and Labor.

“He concentrated more of his attention to constituent service and building relationships with other members and familiarizing himself with the process,” John Frith, Gallegly’s spokesman, said of the former Simi Valley mayor’s first term.

Now, Frith said, Gallegly’s staff is exploring a series of legislative initiatives that may be introduced next year.

These include a resolution putting Congress on record as opposing any consideration of legalizing drugs and bills to ban the manufacture, sale and importation of drug paraphernalia; to shift American troops no longer needed in Europe to Immigration and Naturalization border patrols and to give the President a line-item budget veto but allow Congress to override a presidential veto with a majority vote.

Moorhead, dean of the California Republican delegation, has introduced a measure to require customs agents to check the vehicle identification number of exported automobiles. He said this would cut down on car thefts that involve changing identification numbers and shipping stolen vehicles overseas.

Another Moorhead measure would permit the INS to use volunteers for clerical and secretarial duties at border patrol offices. This idea, which Moorhead said was prompted by volunteer programs in Los Angeles law-enforcement agencies, is intended to alleviate a manpower shortage by putting more professional agents out on patrol.

Neither bill has gained any apparent legislative momentum.

In addition to his design patents proposal, Moorhead also has introduced a bill to provide a process for patenting products developed through space exploration. He said he is optimistic about its prospects.

Beyond his own bills, Moorhead said, he is often involved in shaping legislation as the ranking Republican on Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on energy and power and on Judiciary’s subcommittee on courts, civil liberties and administration of justice. The latter assignment has led to his pre-eminent legislative specialty.

“Much of his legislative work has been done on patent and copyright--useful but scarcely fascinating matters like protecting American patent rights abroad, protecting the privacy of electronic mail and extending drug patents to give time for regulatory approval,” according to “The American Almanac of Politics.”

CONGRESSIONAL BILLS PENDING Some legislation introduced in the 101st Congress by Valley Area Representatives:

REP. ANTHONY C. BEILENSON (D-Tarzana)

CAMPAIGN FINANCING: Bill would publicly and fully finance all general election campaigns in the House of Representatives. Prospects: Measure failed to move in two previous sessions; partial public campaign financing considered a possibility.

GASOLINE TAX: Bill would phase in a 50 cents-a-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax over five years, raising $150 billion for deficit reduction during that time. Prospects: Dim, given President Bush’s pledge not to increase taxes.

REP. HOWARD L. BERMAN (D-Panorama City)

IMMIGRATION REFORM: Bill would increase visas for family members of permanent U.S. residents and for workers. Prospects: Under active consideration; likely to be merged with other immigration measures.

VIDEOCASSETTE COPYRIGHTS: Bill would ban the manufacture and sale of “black boxes” that facilitate the unauthorized copying of videocassettes. Prospects: Berman seeking hearing early next year in House Judiciary subcommittee.

REP. ELTON GALLEGLY (R-Simi Valley)

DEATH PENALTY: Bill would empower federal courts to impose the death penalty for killing federal law enforcement officers. Prospects: Bottled up in House Judiciary Committee last session; Senate Judiciary Committee passed broader capital punishment bill in October.

REP. CARLOS J. MOORHEAD (R-Glendale)

DESIGN PATENT: Bill would expand copyright protection for industrial designs of such items as telephones, luggage and automotive parts. Prospects: Moorhead has unsuccessfully introduced measure in two previous

sessions but has new-found congressional and Administration support.

AUTO THEFT: Bill would require customs officers to verify identification numbers of vehicles before the cars are exported to make sure they are not stolen. Prospects: Uncertain.

REP. HENRY A. WAXMAN (D-Los Angeles)

CLEAN AIR: Sweeping bill would revise clean air legislation including urban and rural air pollution guidelines, toxic pollutants restrictions and acid rain controls. Prospects: Passage of a bill likely but high-stakes battles, particularly including over on alternative automobile fuels and acid rain provisions, remain.

FOOD LABELING: Bill would require food labels to specify the amount of fat, cholesterol, sodium, protein and calories and manufacturers to provide scientific evidence to support health claims. Prospects: Waxman optimistic, but disagreements remain.

PESTICIDE RESIDUE: Bill would change the standard for measuring acceptable level of pesticide residue on foods from a balancing of health and economic concerns to strictly health considerations. Prospects: Major fight looms, with Bush Administration proposing a bill more sympathetic to agriculture and chemical industries.