O.C.’s 5-Man Contingent Laments 102nd Congress : Politics: Republican congressmen criticize scandals and failure to cope with growing federal budget deficit.

If the 102nd Congress, which ended last week, was not a flat-out disaster, it came darn close. That was the grim assessment of the five conservative Republicans who represent Orange County in the House of Representatives.

“We were a major failure,” said Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), lamenting the scandals involving the House bank and post office. “We have given the nation the impression that we’re a corrupt institution.”

Scandal aside, the greatest tragedy of the 102nd Congress, said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), was its inability to tame the growing federal budget deficit. “Instead of going after the major threat to the well-being of the American people,” Rohrabacher said, “we just debated around the periphery.”

Retiring Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton), one of the most fiscally conservative members of the House, noted that the federal government will add more than $425 billion to the national debt this year, including some interest payments not usually calculated as part of the budget deficit. “Spending in Congress is out of control,” he said.

The blame, the congressmen said, rests with the Democrats who control the House.

“Partisanship triumphed over sound policy in the 102nd Congress,” Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) said. “On the big potatoes issues . . . absolutely nothing was accomplished.”

Democratic leaders, who have offered upbeat assessments of the Congress’ work, have blamed much of the rancor on Republicans.

Among Congress’ sins, the Orange County Republicans said, was the defeat of a constitutional amendment that would have required a balanced federal budget. In addition, lawmakers put on hold a measure that would give the President increased power to cut specific federal accounts. But the failure to rein in spending was not the only disappointment for conservatives.

A major crime bill died in the waning days of the session. And the Congress handed President Bush a significant defeat when it voted to override Bush’s veto of legislation to re-regulate the cable television industry, a move opposed by many, but not all, conservatives.

Nevertheless, Orange County’s representatives said there were some bright spots, many of which involved large expenditures on public works. As an aide to one local congressman said, one representative’s “pork” is another’s “important infrastructure investment.”

Among the achievements cited by the Orange County congressional delegation, which also includes Rep. Ron Packard (R-Oceanside), was approval of more than $90 million to continue work next year on the massive Santa Ana River flood control project. Billed as the most ambitious flood control program in the nation, the project will ultimately cost nearly $1.5 billion.

The congressmen pointed to inclusion of $6.5 million in the 1993 federal budget to begin design work on a new federal courthouse in Santa Ana. The $168-million project is a keystone of the city’s redevelopment efforts and is expected to give birth to new jobs and businesses in the downtown area.

And the lawmakers said the decision to spend $2.1 billion next year to continue work on the planned Space Station Freedom will promote the long-term interests of the nation and the short-term welfare of workers at McDonnell Douglas Space Systems Co. in Huntington Beach. The company holds space station contracts valued at $3.5 billion.

“Orange County has done extremely well in a year of unbelievable constraints on the federal budget,” said the county’s Washington lobbyist, James F. McConnell. “I would be surprised if we could duplicate the effort again” next year.

On another front, Rohrabacher said he counted as a personal accomplishment the debate that erupted after he criticized local government agencies for making their services too readily available to illegal immigrants, whom Rohrabacher referred to generically as “Pedro.”

“We’ve got a major problem,” Rohrabacher said. “At least I brought it up and made it part of the public debate.”

The congressman also cited as a major victory the determination by the U.S. Department of Education that affirmative action admissions practices at Boalt Hall, the law school at UC Berkeley, violated federal civil rights law. Rohrabacher, who pushed for the Education Department investigation, has said university admissions practices that reserve spaces for specific minority groups are racist. He has said that such policies disproportionately discriminate against Asian-Americans.

Packard, who represents South County, applauded the 1991 passage of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, which gave local governments far greater freedom to spend federal transportation aid on projects of their choosing. Packard serves on the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation, and played a significant role in shaping the legislation.

“It was a crucial bill for California,” the congressman said.

In approving new transportation legislation this year, Congress included two provisions of importance to Orange County. One measure removed key obstacles to construction of the San Joaquin Hills toll road by providing limited federal loan guarantees for the nearly $800-million project. A second measure established a temporary moratorium on enforcement of weight restrictions on public transit buses, including those operated by the Orange County Transportation Authority. At the height of the dispute, the California Highway Patrol stopped some OCTA buses and ordered passengers off.

Packard also noted that Congress approved legislation, which he sponsored, calling for a three-year study that could lead to pilot water desalination projects in Southern California.

Dornan ticked off a list of measures that he said will benefit his district and the rest of Orange County. They include provisions of the transportation bill, which provide funds for improvements to the Santa Ana Freeway in and near Anaheim, and the widening of Bristol Street; President Bush’s “weed and seed” drug control legislation, which will make funds available in a section of Anaheim hard hit by the drug war. (U.S. Atty. Gen. William P. Barr said the program has shown dramatic results in Santa Ana.)

Dornan also took credit, along with Cox, for his work on the flood control and courthouse projects, and on the agreement of the U.S. Marine Corps to assume responsibility for cleanup of toxic wastes near the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. Dornan serves on the House Armed Services Committee.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had as successful a two years, personally,” said the seven-term congressman.

Dannemeyer, who is leaving Congress after an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate this spring, said he believes that he has persuaded many Americans to accept some of his views on the AIDS epidemic.

The effort was helped, he said, by the appearance last year at a Dannemeyer-sponsored hearing of the dying Kimberly Bergalis, the young Florida woman who apparently contracted the fatal disease from her dentist. She died shortly after the hearing.

“The pendulum is swinging to the side of treating the AIDS epidemic as a public health issue and not a civil rights issue,” Dannemeyer said. “I think that’s in part as a result of the efforts I’ve made.”

A staunch foe of homosexual activists, Dannemeyer has long argued that doctors should be required to report to public health authorities, in confidence, the names of those found to be infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

Gay rights advocates have argued against mandatory reporting, contending that it would drive those most in need of testing away from health authorities for fear that their HIV status would be revealed to employers, landlords or others.

Like Dornan, Cox applauded congressional action to finance the Santa Ana River project and the new Orange County courthouse. “Congress did act on those . . . matters, and perhaps we should count our blessings in that respect,” he said.

However, Cox said he was particularly stung by the failure of the balanced budget amendment. Cox said he will try again next year to push through a budget process reform package that would place strict limits on Congress’ ability to create budget deficits. The package, which had 150 co-sponsors during the last session of Congress, is likely to win support of many of the new members who will be elected next month, Cox said.

“The prospect of as many as 150 new members of the House, in one fell swoop, offers the greatest opportunity yet to pass fundamental reform, to totally overhaul the broken-down budget process,” Cox said.

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