House Elder Moorhead Sets Own Term Limit, Obligatory or Not

TERM LIMIT: Every two years, some politician or pundit speculates that Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) is on the cusp of retirement. Moorhead invariably denies that he’s ready to end a congressional tenure that spans more than two decades and six presidencies.

Now the longtime lawmaker, who is seeking his 12th term at the age of 72, has set a cap on his House career--assuming that voters don’t beat him to it. He told The Times that he would not serve beyond 1998 and that, should he be reelected in November, his next term might be his last.

The California congressional term limit law is scheduled to take effect in 1998, although many lawmakers expect the Supreme Court to invalidate state-determined term limits for Congress before that time. In any case, Moorhead plans to make two more terms his outside limit no matter what, he said.

And he may not hang on that long. He expressed concern that if he announced in advance that he did not plan to run in 1996, he might jeopardize his coveted post as ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which he gained last year.

“I would not want to be a lame duck,” said Moorhead, one of the House’s most conservative members. “And I do not want to affect any assignments. I have not decided beyond the fact that I’m going to absolutely follow California’s law”--whether it’s still the law or not.

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PUBLIC PENSIONERS: Moorhead and Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) are among 46 House members who receive pensions from previous state and local government positions even as they draw their $133,640 congressional salary, according to Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper.

Beilenson, who was a state assemblyman and senator for 14 years prior to his election to Congress in 1976, reported in his annual financial disclosure statement that he received a legislative pension of $11,679 in 1993.

Moorhead, an ex-state assemblyman for six years before winning a House seat in 1972, reported that he received a legislative pension of $2,738. After serving in the Army from 1942 to 1945 and in the Army Reserves until 1982, he also got a military pension of $8,667 in 1993. House rules cap outside income at 15% of the lawmakers’ annual salary but permit members to accept unlimited pension payments or other compensation for work done prior to their election to Congress.

Moorhead said that because he still holds public office he only receives what amounts to interest on what he paid into the state pension system as a legislator. His pension will be far higher when he leaves office. And he said he feels he earned the military pension.

“The reserves play an important part in our overall national defense scheme,” Moorhead said. “And reserves get paid virtually nothing. I made myself available for 40 years. I don’t feel I’m unentitled to the (modest sum) I get for those 40 years.”

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FOREIGN FACT-FINDING: As chairman of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on international operations, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) is leading a delegation of eight Democrats on a 10-day trip to France, Croatia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

The group, which left July 1, is meeting with various officials in the host countries. It planned to examine European arms sales policy, discuss concerns over the role and access of American cultural products in the French marketplace and review U.S. and U.N. efforts to bring peace to the former Yugoslavia.

“A key focus of the trip is to assess the impact of U.S. assistance in the political and economic development of Eastern and Central Europe and the integration of the region into the new European security structure,” Berman said in a written statement.

Berman’s subcommittee authorizes funding for the State Department, the United States Information Agency and other foreign policy agencies.

Berman took along his chief aide, Gene Smith, three subcommittee staffers and his wife, Janis. The lawmakers in tow include Californians Julian C. Dixon and Lucille Roybal-Allard of Los Angeles, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Anna Eshoo of Atherton.

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BIPARTISANSHIP?: Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) got an unlikely vote of confidence on national television recently from none other than House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). It was, however, backhanded at best.

Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Gingrich was asked whether he could be objective about President Clinton’s health-care reform plan after accepting $500,000 in campaign contributions from insurance companies, medical groups and others opposed to the proposal.

In part, Gingrich replied: “Henry Waxman, a very liberal Democrat who favors a single-payer system, gets more money from more health PACs than anybody else in Congress. It doesn’t affect--seem to affect--his behavior at all. He exploits his position. He is very much for a big government plan, which most of the people who contribute to him frankly would oppose.”

Gingrich’s facts were not quite right. Waxman received $226,949 from health care providers and insurers between Jan. 1, 1991, and March 31, 1994, but nine other House and Senate members took in more, according to a study by the Center for Responsive Politics, a research organization. House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) led with $593,621.

And in one respect, at least, Waxman is hardly unique.

The American Medical Assn.’s political arm gives more money, on average, to congressional candidates who oppose the doctors’ positions on key health issues than to backers, according to a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study’s author said this occurs because the PAC “emphasizes the economic concerns of physicians” more than the AMA’s public health stands.

Waxman responded by noting that he hasn’t held a fund-raiser in several years and has long backed proposals to pay for campaigns with partial public funding and cap campaign spending.

“I doubt he really means to be praising me,” Waxman said of Gingrich. “It sounds like he was trying not to answer the question about his own actions.”