Family Values in Congress? Only If They Adjourn Early

Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) missed her daughter’s graduation; Rep. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.), his 20th anniversary dinner.

At one point, the children of Rep. Pat Danner were so desperate to see her that, unbeknown to the Kansas City, Mo., Democrat, they bought a lunch with their mother at a public television station auction.

Nobody who works in--or for--Congress has any illusions about how unrelenting the job can be.

But the new Republican leadership, elected on a platform of strengthening America’s families, has promised to make its own place of employment more “family-friendly”--at least for those who remain after the anticipated major Democratic staff reductions.

As one of his first acts after the Nov. 8 elections, Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who is in line to become Speaker of the House, appointed Republican Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf, a father of five, to head an advisory committee on improving Congress’ quality of family life. The current schedule, Gingrich said, “brutalizes and damages families by its intensity and pace.”

Few denizens of Capitol Hill would disagree. But despite that rare bipartisan feeling, Congress may have difficulty changing its spots, even as it changes its keepers.

Dashing hopes immediately after they raised them, the new House leaders declared that they expect members to work seven days a week, “even 20 hours a day if necessary”--in the words of Rep. Dick Armey (R-Tex.), the likely next majority leader--to pass the party’s “Contract With America” within 100 days.

“They’re already contradicting themselves,” Richardson said. “I think the effort is a good one, but the Republicans are politicizing what needs to be a (bipartisan) reform, asserting it as a ‘family values’ issue as though Democrats don’t have them.”

This latest effort at reform is hardly unprecedented.

“This has been kicking around Congress for a long time,” said Rep. Sam Coppersmith (D-Ariz.). “It’s what members talk about when they’re sitting around waiting for one of those interminable votes.”

The outgoing Democratic-led Congress actually started out quite family-friendly, according to members, with the House sticking to its normal Tuesday through Thursday schedule.

But like students who leave their homework to the last minute, Democratic leaders began tacking on Mondays and Fridays--days meant for members to travel and meet with constituents--in an ultimately fruitless effort to pass large quantities of legislation before the August recess.

As the recess continued to be postponed, vacations were canceled, graduations and family reunions missed, and the atmosphere on Capitol Hill became increasingly surly.

“You couldn’t get into an elevator without hearing members grumble,” said Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio), a member of the new advisory committee and the mother of a 4-year-old daughter. “I thought the place was going to explode.”

Earlier in the year, an attempt was made to change the House schedule to the Senate schedule, which calls for five-day weeks for three weeks, followed by one week off.

A resolution introduced by Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.) attracted 80 co-sponsors, but Maloney collected 120 signatures on a rival petition to retain the status quo.

“What is family-friendly depends on where your family is,” she explained.

Because Roemer’s family lives in Washington, it would suit him better to work shorter hours five days a week.

But Maloney’s family is in New York City, too far for a daily commute. So she would rather work late for three days, then go home for long weekends with her husband and daughters, ages 7 and 14.

Although an exact breakdown of the incoming Congress was not available, the trend is that fewer new House members move their families to Washington.

Insecurity about reelection prospects in a fickle political climate is one factor; so is preference for what many regard as a superior quality of life outside the Beltway.

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Many also prefer the current schedule because it enables them to spend more time with constituents.

“It’s unrealistic to think we can be away from our districts for three weeks at a time,” said Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Los Angeles), who has two grown children but still goes back to California at least every other week.

The schedule followed by most representatives of Western states makes it clear that theirs is not a job for those with a fear of flying--or an above-average need for sleep.

Coppersmith, who has children ages 8, 6 and 3, estimated that he has spent one-seventh of the last two years aloft.

On Mondays, he would get up in time to drive his kids’ school car-pool, go to his district office until 4 p.m., then fly to Washington, where he arrived around midnight.

“There I relived my college and law school days by living in a dump on Capitol Hill. For three days, I would work straight through, then race to Dulles (airport) to get the one nonstop to Phoenix. I’d get home by 7:15 p.m. because of the time difference and put the kids to bed.”

Grueling as this schedule was, Coppersmith was opposed to changing it.

He explained the difficulty of achieving consensus on reform: “It’s a lot like campaign finance reform (which also failed to pass this year). There are very few issues on which everyone is an expert. But everybody knows what the campaign finance bills would have done to their last campaign and everybody knows exactly what the various proposals (for a new schedule) would mean for their family.”

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Still, the Republicans say they are determined to try.

“I believe we can achieve a balance” between the interests of the various groups, said Wolf, the head of the new committee, which met for the first time on Tuesday. “Gingrich and Armey are committed to this. It’s a question of working smarter.”

Despite the impossibility of completely satisfying 435 individuals from multiple time zones and with a variety of family situations, Wolf and others said that the House schedule could at least be made more reliable so they wouldn’t frequently be put in the position of breaking promises to be home for holidays and other important events.

Many urged that recesses be scheduled to coincide with school vacations, that business on the House floor start earlier than the current noon or 2 p.m., and that members be assured that on at least one weeknight, the House adjourns by 6.

“This job is a wonderful job, but after it’s over, you want to have your family,” said Wolf, a 14-year House veteran whose children now range in age from 20 to 30. “There is nothing more ‘ex’ than an ex-Congressman.”

Pryce said reform might be easier to achieve with the defeat of a number of older male Democrats, such as Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.) and Speaker Tom Foley (D-Wash.), who might not have had family matters greatly in mind when they scheduled committee hearings and floor votes.

The incoming House will have more women than ever, 49 compared to 47 in the outgoing body, also a record.

Judging from the number of small children seen on Jan. 3, 1993, when the current Congress was sworn in--and occasional sightings of babies on the House floor in the arms of such proud papas as Roemer and Thomas Barrett (D-Wis.)--the pressure for a family-oriented House increasingly crosses gender as well as party lines.

“If our country wants legislators to be effective, we can come up with a schedule that’s not just good for grandfathers but for all walks of life to serve their country,” said Pryce, who was elected to a second term Nov. 8.

Coppersmith, another freshman, was defeated in the Republican tidal wave. But his loss had a silver lining for his family.

“My eldest took a poll at school and found we were the only family that hadn’t been to Disneyland,” he said. “We just got back.”