Valley Lawmakers Split on Caucus Cuts : Congress: The GOP plan to halt funding to 28 organizations would affect every member of the region’s delegation.

Republican plans to cut off funding for more than two dozen special-interest caucuses on Capitol Hill--from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to the Congressional Hunger Caucus--will affect every member of the San Fernando Valley’s congressional delegation.

Valley lawmakers, however, are divided on the merits of the plan, which would do away with with 28 of the so-called “legislative service organizations” now operating with taxpayer money.

Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) supports the reform, even though the research group known as the House Republican Study Committee, of which he is a member, would lose its funding.

“We have to look at what’s best for the country,” McKeon said Wednesday during a break in meetings of Republican lawmakers. “We have to change as many things as we can for the better during this transition. . . . If something is really important, it will still happen. You don’t need government money to fund everything.”

Along with its several dozen committees and subcommittees, where the bulk of government work is handled, Congress has 140 caucuses that specialize in everything from fine arts to footwear to minor league baseball. Of those, 28 are funded by dues paid by lawmakers.

Under the plan unveiled this week--which is designed to save $5 million and reduce staff by 96 people--the caucuses could continue to exist, but only if they are not funded from members’ office accounts.

Critics of the Republican proposal say some of the caucuses targeted to be disbanded serve valuable roles in delving into issues outside the confines of committees.

“I think the Republicans are trying to keep the Democrats from having the ability to get the information we need to see what they’re up to,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles).

He also questioned the cost-cutting nature of the proposal, since the funding for the caucuses had been coming from members’ office budgets and not any separate fund.

“I don’t think it’s the business of the Republican leadership how we deal with our office budgets,” Waxman said.

Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City) is one active joiner--he has at least 11 caucuses to his name--who nonetheless supports the bulk of the Republican proposal. He says the more important caucuses will find funding elsewhere, while those that are not needed will disband.

But Berman contends that the Democratic and Republican study groups, which research legislation for members of their respective parties, fill such an essential role for lawmakers that they should continue to receive funding.

“There are a lot of things I don’t like about changing the majority in the House,” Berman said in an interview, “but there are some reforms being made that make some sense, and this may be one of them.”

Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) also sees pluses and minuses with the move.

“There’s some good to it and some bad,” he said. “Anytime you take an across-the-board action like this, there are casualties among groups that don’t deserve to be hurt. In general, these are real valuable organizations. They help Congress do its work better. They provide valuable research help.”

Beilenson said he was not certain whether some of the more substantive groups could be saved when the full House takes up the matter next month.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” he said. “As you know, this is all new to us. Our Republican friends are proposing a lot of changes--some of them quite good and some of them not so good.”

Among the caucuses on the chopping block are the Congressional Arts Caucus, which encourages federal funding for the arts and counts Berman, Waxman and Beilenson as members; the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, which Berman has joined as an associate member to reach out to Latinos in his district; and the Environmental and Energy Study Conference, on which Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale) and Beilenson sit.

Moorhead said he has found the two groups he joined useful for keeping track of issues, but he nonetheless supports the GOP proposal.

“At a time that we have committed to reducing government, I think it is appropriate to forgo some of these legislative luxuries,” Moorhead said through a spokesman.

Other groups targeted to lose their funding include the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus, Congressional Border Caucus, Congressional Narcotics Abuse and Control Caucus and Federal Government Service Task Force.

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Valley Caucus Memberships

Here’s a look at the caucus memberships of the San Fernando Valley’s congressional delegation. Those groups in boldface are scheduled to lose their funding.

Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City): Democratic Study Group, Congressional Arts Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, California Democratic Congressional Delegation, Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus, Environmental and Energy Study Conference, Congressional Border Caucus, Congressional Human Rights Caucus, Friends of Ireland, Congressional Caucus for Syrian Jewry, and Congressional Children’s Working Group.

Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills): Democratic Study Group, Congressional Arts Caucus, Congressional Hunger Caucus, California Democratic Congressional Delegation, Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues, Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus, Environmental and Energy Study Conference, Congressional Caucus for Syrian Jewry, and Congressional Coalition on Population and Development.

Carlos J. Moorhead (R-Glendale): House Republican Study Committee, Environmental and Energy Study Conference.

Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles): Democratic Study Group, Congressional Arts Caucus, Older Americans Caucus, Congressional Caucus for Syrian Jewry, Congressional Children’s Working Group, and Congressional Coalition on Population and Development.

Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita): House Republican Study Committee.