WASHINGTON INSIGHT

THE TALK OF CONGRESS: Most Senate and House debates have become so humdrum that even avid C-Span viewers sometimes fall asleep. In recommending congressional reforms last year, scholars Norman J. Ornstein and Thomas E. Mann prescribed a remedy. They urged leaders to organize debates on major issues, independent of legislation. “The parties would put forward their most articulate advocates and really engage in classy debate about health care, economic growth and welfare reform as a way of elevating discussion in both bodies,” Mann says. Now there are signs the idea will be tried. House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) has discussed it with Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), and Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell (D-Me.) has voiced strong interest. . . . But another proposed change pushed by Gephardt--to have Clinton appear regularly before Congress for a British-style “question time”--may never happen. House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) is concerned that it would violate separation-of-powers doctrine. And White House aides worry that it could give Republicans an opportunity to launch diversionary attacks on the President.