Prodigal Senator Chosen to Head Environment Panel

Senate Republicans on Tuesday chose Sen. Bob Smith (R-N.H.) to be chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, rewarding a prodigal son who left the GOP briefly to run for president and signaling a potentially major shift in environmental policy.

Smith, who has served eight years in the Senate and is one of its most conservative members, won a hard-fought contest with Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), another conservative. Both had served on the committee under Sen. John H. Chafee (R-R.I.), who chaired the panel until his death on Oct. 24.

Although Inhofe backed out at the last minute to enable the Senate Republican Conference to endorse the appointment unanimously, the selection of Smith was widely viewed as a reward for his return to the GOP after a failed 111-day run for president as an independent.

Smith angrily resigned from the GOP in July, charging party leaders with abandoning the conservative agenda in an effort to win elections. He threw in the towel as a presidential candidate Thursday, setting off a round of negotiations on his reentry into the party.

Although Smith ducked all substantive questions about his views on environmental policy Tuesday, he is expected to depart from the pro-conservationist stance embraced by Chafee and to wage an aggressive campaign to make environmental laws and rules more friendly to business.

Among the positions he has supported over the years is revising the Superfund to shift the cost of paying for cleaning up toxic waste sites away from polluters and more toward federal and state taxpayers. He also has favored relaxing other environmental demands on businesses.

Chafee was one of the chief architects of many of the major environmental laws now on the books and had been highly regarded by conservation groups, which relied on him to lead their fight in the Senate against conservatives’ efforts to weaken current regulations.

The League of Conservation Voters, which publishes ratings based on each lawmaker’s support for legislation backed by environmental groups, rated Chafee’s voting record as “correct” 70% of the time over his career while awarding Smith a 36% lifetime rating.

Environmental groups reacted warily to Smith’s appointment. Daniel J. Weiss, political director of the Sierra Club, said that his organization hopes Smith “will reflect, rather than tarnish, John Chafee’s environmental legacy [by] opposing efforts to weaken regulations.”

But business groups expressed satisfaction with the choice. William L. Kovacs, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s point man on environmental issues, said that Smith is likely to be “better, from a business perspective,” on environmental issues, particularly on the Superfund law.

The announcement came just minutes after Lincoln Chafee, 46, the son of the late GOP senator and now the Republican mayor of Warwick, R.I., was named by Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Almond to finish the remaining 14 months of his late father’s term in the Senate.

Chafee, who already had announced plans to run for the seat in the 2000 election, is expected to be sworn in formally as early as today. He told reporters in Providence that he intends to continue his father’s moderate “pro-environment” stance.

The timing of Smith’s appointment came as a surprise. Until Tuesday, most GOP strategists had expected the contest between Smith and Inhofe to continue into the late part of this week or early next week.

Although Smith had more seniority in the Senate than Inhofe, the rivalry had become unusually intense and several Republicans had indicated that they were uncomfortable with naming Smith for fear the move might seem to “reward” someone who had bolted from the party.

Republican leaders, anxious to avoid a high-profile intraparty dispute just as Congress was beginning its annual end-of-session battle with the White House, moved abruptly Tuesday to resolve the issue.

After Republicans on the Environment and Public Works Committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of Smith, Inhofe withdrew from the contest. The full GOP conference, which includes all Republicans in the Senate, then unanimously approved the appointment.

Although Smith had to give up his post as chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee, the new job will give him substantial clout. Besides conservation issues, he also has jurisdiction over public works programs--senators’ pet pork-barrel projects.