House Majority Leader Hoyer on Iraq, Katrina

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MICHEL MARTIN, host:

From NPR News, this is NEWS & NOTES. I'm Michel Martin. Farai Chideya is on vacation.

Most Americans agree that Iraq is the country's most pressing issue. The Senate was expected to be the first legislative body to debate a resolution expressing disapproval of the president's plans to increase troop levels. Those discussions broke down earlier this week.

So Democratic leaders in the House met yesterday to discuss their own version of the resolution. It will hit the floor of Congress early next week. That's according to Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, the number two party leader.

As part of a special NEWS & NOTES series on power players in the new Congress, I spoke with Congressman Hoyer in his office in the Capitol. He told me the Democrats' Iraq resolution will do two things.

Representative STENY HOYER (Democrat, Maryland): It will express strong support for our troops, and it will express opposition to the increase in troops that president has proposed for Iraq.

MARTIN: It looks like the Senate resolution might be back on track. Are you going to proceed no matter what the Senate does?

Rep. HOYER: We're going to proceed because although it now appears that seven Republican senators who voted to delay the debate have now reconsidered their view, saying that they thought the debate needed to go forward. I think that's good news. We welcome that. And we believe before we go home, we owe it to the American people, we owe it to our troops, we owe it to our country to have an expression by the House of Representatives on the suggestions of the president

MARTIN: This has been a huge story in Washington. But in the rest of the country I think some people are wondering what difference does it make. It's a non-binding resolution. The president has already said that he's willing to proceed no matter what the Congress says about this. So what difference does it make?

Rep. HOYER: Well, in the short term - and I don't think there's much we can do about the president's decision to move ahead in the short term because if we passed a law presuming that he would veto it, we don't have the ability to override his veto.

But this is a first important step in expressing the will of the Congress of the United States, the people's representatives. Now it's going to be followed in a little over a month with the supplemental appropriation bill, and its consideration will be followed by an authorization bill and by another appropriation bill for fiscal year '08. So there are going to be many future opportunities to take further, perhaps more definitive steps, but this is the first step.

MARTIN: A majority of Democratic House members voted against the war to begin with. You were part of the minority of House members who voted to give the president the authority to move forward.

Now you gave a major speech, I think it was two or three weeks ago, where you said that if you knew then what you know now, you would not have voted to go forward. Is that the same as expressing regret for your vote? Do you express regret for your vote?

Rep. HOYER: Let me explain my view, and this is my view, it doesn't express the caucus' view or other's view. I believe that the removal of Saddam Hussein was a worthwhile policy to pursue, and I voted that way to authorize the president to do that.

I voted in 1998 for a resolution, which was supported by over 350 members of the House, that essentially said it was the policy of the United States to remove Saddam Hussein.

The reason I would not vote yes today if I knew then what I know now is because I believe a policy that I thought was a worthwhile policy has been carried out in such an extraordinarily incompetent fashion. The policy of enforcing international law I think is an important one.

For instance, Michel, I was one of the strongest proponents, along with John McCain and Bob Dole, of using military force by the United States to stop the genocide in Bosnia and in Kosovo. The United Nations talks about Darfur, talked about the Congo, it talked about Rwanda, and millions of people died because we didn't act.

So I don't regret my vote from a policy standpoint. I regret my vote because it was so incompetently pursued by the administration. And no one ought to vote for something that is going to be a failure, and the policies adopted to accomplish it clearly are not up to the task.

What I've - what I indicated to the White House was the president talks about the great risk that terrorism confronts us with. My response to the president was, Mr. President, I don't think you've ever asked the country to respond commensurate to the risk you say exists.

MARTIN: I want to save some time for domestic issues, and I know that you had met this week with Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana. A number of people noticed the fact that the president never mentioned the Gulf Coast in his recent State of the Union address. And many people were disappointed about that. And I just wonder, though, what's the Democratic message about the Gulf region?

Rep. HOYER: The Democratic position at this point in time - Governor Blanco and I were just discussing this, as you know - is that speaker Pelosi and I, Mr. Clyburn, our whip, Mr. Emanuel, the chairman of our caucus, we all believe that it is critically important for us to organize our caucus and our policymaking bodies to respond decisively and promptly to that which has not yet been done even now, some 18 months after Katrina.

We're going to do that. We're going to do it as quickly as we can, and we hope to work with the administration in urging the administration where executive action is necessary to get them to move in areas that we think are important, whether it's housing…

MARTIN: Can give an example of specific policies that you're pushing for?

Rep. HOYER: Yes. Let me tell you, the Stafford Act, which is an act under which FEMA operates and can distribute funds, as you know. The Stafford Act, from everybody's perception in the Gulf Coast, has been a constraining act rather than a helpful act. It hasn't allowed FEMA to respond in areas that they need to respond to fully.

So I think we need to - we're going to look at the Stafford Act. Housing, Barney Frank of the Financial Services Committee and Maxine Waters, who's the chairwoman of the Housing subcommittee, are looking in a very focused and very urgent way. Housing is critical because health care was damaged. Educational institutions were damaged. They need to backfill for nurses and doctors and teachers. They don't have any housing.

So, notwithstanding the fact that you went into market nationally to hire and are paying, for instance, for nurses a 10 percent differential, they don't have any housing for them.

MARTIN: In fairness, though, the Democratic - Senator Webb, who gave the Democratic response to the State of the Union, didn't mention Katrina either.

Rep. HOYER: He mentioned only two things, but one of them - you'll recall one of the things he mentioned clearly contemplates Katrina. Because what we saw in Katrina is the great gulf between the haves and the have-nots. Iraq was one theme that Senator Webb raised, and the other thing was the haves and the have-nots.

MARTIN: Let's talk about some sensitive issues, though, within the House. As you know, there's an unprecedented number of African-Americans in positions of leadership now in the House of Representatives. But the relationships between the leadership of the House and the Black Caucus hasn't always been that smooth. I mean there are a number of African-Americans who were disappointed that the Speaker took William Jefferson off Ways and Means.

She didn't allow Alcee Hastings to take the chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee. And some people look at that and they say, well, you know, that African-Americans have been deeply loyal to the Democratic Party, but does the party, particularly as represented by the House leadership, return that loyalty? What would you say to someone who had those views?

Rep. HOYER: Michel, first of all, I would say the two instances that you mentioned, I don't really think any fair-minded person would say that in either one of those instances that was because either one were African-Americans. There were other factors involved.

Alcee Hastings, as you know, is now the chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. He remains one of the senior members of the Rules Committee. Alcee Hastings is a very close friend of mine and he was the president of the Organization on Security and Cooperation In Europe's Parliamentary Assembly with my support and urging.

Bill Jefferson obviously has been confronted with assertions that, in my opinion, need to proceeded with.

MARTIN: But he's not been charged…

Rep. HOYER: Well, they need to be advantaged.

MARTIN: There's no charges leveled against him.

Rep. HOYER: That's correct. But it was important from Speaker Pelosi's and the caucus' standpoint to make a statement with reference to the standards. The standards are not whether you're convicted - the standard, or charged, the standards are can you engender confidence the American public in important leadership positions. Mr. Jefferson, as you know, if this matter is resolved favorably, is going to be reinstated in his position. We've made that very clear.

But from an African-American standpoint in the United States of America, this is a wonderful positive exciting time. Charlie Rangel is the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. Jim Clyburn is the number three leader in the House of Representatives, former chairman of the Black Caucus. So that we have real inclusion of African-Americans in our party. And of course, Barack Obama is one of the major candidates for president of the United States.

MARTIN: Quick question about one of your colleagues, Tom Tancredo has said that he doesn't think there should be a Black Caucus at all, that it's divisive. Or an Hispanic caucus for that matter. It's divisive. What do you think?

Rep. HOYER: I think that's absurd. And the reason it's absurd is I'm a Danish-American. Now there aren't many Danish-Americans. But what I meet a Danish-American, I get a pretty excited about that.

All of us have things in common with other people, and we feel comfortable being around with people who understand the experiences we've been through. And so we have groups that meet. And it may be women, it may be men. I mean does he think men's clubs ought to be abolished or does he think that, you know, the Italian-American club ought to be abolished?

MARTIN: I think he does.

Rep. HOYER: Well, I don't think they're divisive. I think they emphasize our diversity. But then from that diversity, we can bring a unity, which we have done in the Democratic caucus.

MARTIN: Speaking of which, your own career has spanned remarkable racial change and social change. I mean, the county that you grew up in went from predominantly rural, mostly white, to very urban, very suburban, largely African-American. You now represent a district that is very diverse. And I'm just wondering what your own career says about the ability to build relationships over time with people across racial lines.

Rep. HOYER: First of all, I think the cardinal rule is to respect one another. There's a great little book, "I'm Okay, You're Okay." And that the premise of that book is if you believe others are okay and come at them as if they're okay, they will come in you as if you're okay.

I've tried to live my life that way. I was the first, I think probably the first white politician to knock on doors in black neighborhoods in 1966 in a district that George Wallace won in 1964, and George Mahoney - your home is your castle, against fair housing; I was for fair housing - won the year I ran in 1966. And I knocked on doors. I was just a skinny little kid just out of law school, and I got a great response from the African-American community, tremendous vote. And that's why I was elected like to state Senate.

MARTIN: Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, thank you so much for joining us.

Rep. HOYER: Michel, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to be with you once again.

MARTIN: Again, that was House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland. NEWS & NOTES has also reached out to Hoyer's Republican counterpart, House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio. We plan to bring you conversations with other congressional power players in the weeks ahead.

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MARTIN: Just ahead, Hillary Clinton takes on Darfur. And are some kids studying too hard? Plus, Grammy Gold, what a difference a Grammy makes.

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