Hoyer: New Priorities for Democrat-Led Congress

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MICHELE NORRIS, host:

But first up for consideration today were ethics reforms.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

Yes. And the Democrats have already approved some ethics reforms which ban gifts and travel paid for by lobbyists. The new Democratic majority seems committed to delivering on two conflicting messages that they read from the electorate.

First, act quickly on the issues that Speaker Pelosi has set for the first 100 hours of legislative work - if need be, ram them through. But second, run the House more openly, more fairly than the Republicans did. So I asked the second-ranking House Democrat, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, how he reconciles those two aims.

Representative STENY HOYER (Democrat, Maryland; House Majority Leader): Hopefully, both messages are going to be served. During the past six months, we had a very vigorous campaign. Iraq was, of course, a huge issue. We're going to have move on that. But we said we were going to pass, in the first 100 hours, six specific subjects. And the American public heard that, and we got a mandate. We changed leadership. And so we're going to do that. It's not a questions of ramming it through. Almost everything in this package has either been on the floor at one point in time - been considered, been offered.

Let me give you a for instance: the minimum wage. I offered the minimum wage amendment to the Labor Health Appropriation Bill in June. And it was adopted, with seven Republican votes and all Democratic votes. The Labor Health Bill was never reported to the floor, but not because the majority of people didn't support it - simply because, in this case, the majority leader at that point in time, Mr. Boehner, didn't support it.

So that's been discussed. The other bills that we will deal with - the 9/11 Commission report is a bipartisan commission that made a report. We adopted some of its recommendations. And then, after many months, the commission gave the Congress D's, F's and incompletes on the some of the items that they had proposed. We're going to act on those.

SIEGEL: You said Iraq was an important issue in this election. The president seems to have taken away the message from the election that the public wants a new plan for Iraq, but that plan does not mean what he would consider a precipitous withdrawal or starting to move out. What is the message that you hear about Iraq and what does it mean for the Congress to deal with it? It's not going to be dealt with in the first 100 hours.

Rep. HOYER: Well, the complexity of Iraq and the fact that the president, of course, is the commander in chief and in charge of the administration of the armed forces and could veto any legislation that we pass are all significant factors in dealing with the Iraq issue. To pretend that we could deal with that in the first 100 hours along with these other six would be unrealistic and dishonest, in my opinion.

SIEGEL: But should we expect the House to exercise its power over the purse over the war in Iraq?

Rep. HOYER: Clearly, you're going to see the House in the near term, very shortly, first of all exercise its oversight responsibly, which it has not carried out, in my opinion - not only in this Congress, but in the previous two Congresses. Both Mr. Murtha and the Appropriations Committee, Mr. Skelton with the Authorization Committee and the Armed Services Organization Committee, are going to conduct significant oversight.

Iraq is going to be one of the most serious focuses of this Congress. We're in a position - in my opinion, a very bad position - as a result of the - perhaps the worst execution of a foreign policy, perhaps in our history, certainly, I don't think in my lifetime - by this administration, which has failed to achieve any of the objectives post the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime, which was really the simplest part of the task they set for themselves and for the country.

SIEGEL: Mr. Majority Leader, Steny Hoyer of Maryland. Thank you very much for talking with us.

Rep. HOYER: Thank you very much. Good to be with you.

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