Peter Welch isn't the typical freshman House Democrat
by Richard E. Cohen
Sat. May 3, 2008
Freshman Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., knew immediately who was calling when he picked up the phone in his congressional office a few days before last year's August recess. "Pee-tah," bellowed Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., "I need your help."
Sanders was asking his successor in the House to perform a daunting task--and with less than 24 hours' notice. He wanted Welch to add to the House version of a sweeping energy bill a Sanders amendment that encouraged universities to support energy-efficiency projects. The Senate had approved the proposal--which was of great interest to environmentally friendly Vermont--but House committees had dropped it. To help Sanders, Welch would have to bump up against Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., the dean of the House who is not accustomed to taking suggestions from the Senate, let alone from a newcomer in his own chamber.
"I had to get Chairman Dingell to be agreeable," Welch recounted in a recent interview. "He agreed that I could call his committee staff, though they objected [to adding Sanders's amendment] because they wanted more leverage in the conference committee with the Senate." Ultimately, Welch used the parliamentary leverage of the Rules Committee, on which he sits, to get the provision inserted into the House-passed package, and it was part of the broader energy bill enacted in December. He explained that the feat was possible because "I had built some relationship at the Rules Committee with Mr. Dingell, who is a very gracious man."
At a time when many freshman House Democrats are worrying about a tough re-election campaign this fall--or are still trying to find their way around the Capitol--Welch acts like a veteran. At 61, he has drawn on his background as a lawyer who served two lengthy stretches in the Vermont Senate, including eight years as president pro tem, to comfortably maneuver through Washington's legislative channels. He has already taken on substantial energy and environmental issues and procurement reforms that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and committee chairmen have highlighted in their agenda.
"He's very smart, and he takes the initiative," Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said of Welch. "He speaks with a great deal of authority. He has a very bright future."
A veteran House Democratic leadership aide added, "It's like [Welch] has been here for years. He is connected in every way.... He's always looking for something to do. He knows that it will help him to be involved."
Involved indeed. When Democrats regained control last year, they decided that as an inducement to serve on the Rules Committee, they would permit its members to serve on another prominent House committee as well. Welch used the opportunity to join Waxman's Oversight panel, which has wide-ranging investigative authority. The two have worked together on numerous issues.
Welch's influence was apparent on April 23, when the House passed his bill to close a potential loophole on government contracts. He initiated the measure after learning that the Justice Department had published a proposed regulation in November that would have exempted overseas contracts from federal reporting requirements. Even though Bush administration officials later acknowledged and fixed what they described as an unintentional error, Welch said, "I don't totally trust the administration to get it right, and I'm skeptical of their explanation that this was, quote, a mistake."
Despite the administration's opposition, the House passed Welch's legislation by voice vote. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the ranking member on the Oversight Committee, said he enjoyed working with Welch, and he praised the freshman's handling of the bill, including his willingness to accept some technical changes. "He is thoughtful, nice, and earnest," said a GOP aide who has watched Welch in action. "He clearly wants to learn and has respect for others' views."
Welch, who recalls with nostalgia the less partisan tone of the Vermont Senate, said, "My goal is to protect taxpayers. And I have more confidence that will happen when there is bipartisan agreement." Although he succeeded a socialist, Sanders, in the House, Welch takes a more pragmatic, middle-of-the-road approach. His score in National Journal's 2007 vote ratings made him the 77th-most-liberal House member, while Sanders was the fourth-most-liberal senator.
Top Democrats took notice of Welch soon after he arrived in Washington. Only a few weeks after he was sworn in last year, he announced that he had become the first House member to make his congressional office carbon-neutral. By providing financial support for renewable-energy projects in Vermont, he said, he was offsetting the greenhouse-gas emissions generated by his D.C. office.
After Welch discussed his actions with Pelosi aides and with Dan Beard, the House's chief administrative officer, Pelosi and other Democratic leaders announced a "greening the Capitol" initiative last June to make Congress carbon-neutral. "Peter Welch has been a leader on this issue," Pelosi said in unveiling the plan. "The House must lead by example, and Congressman Welch exemplifies this key model."
Welch has been out front on two other major energy and environmental policy initiatives. Working with co-sponsors from California, he took the lead in September in urging the Environmental Protection Agency to grant California a waiver for its stricter tailpipe-emissions standards. That issue has generated significant attention in Vermont and other states that have adopted the California standard; Vermont's attorney general spearheaded a lawsuit against EPA after Administrator Stephen Johnson rejected the application.
More recently, Welch has provided talking points to party leaders to support their call for President Bush to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, because of soaring gasoline prices. With Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., and Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who chairs the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Welch filed a bill in February to suspend purchases for the reserve. "We should stop paying record prices to top off a reserve that is nearly full," Welch said at the time. "History shows that the result will be lower oil and gas prices."
In advocating his energy proposals, Welch has cited the onerous burden of high fuel prices on his home state and what he has called the "Enron loophole" that has allowed energy speculators to "rip off" his constituents who struggle to heat their homes each winter. "My work is all about Vermont," he said.
At the Rules Committee, Welch has managed 17 House rules, which govern floor deliberations on legislation by, for instance, setting the length of debate and the amendments allowed. The panel has long been viewed as a "leadership arm" where politically secure members perform vital housekeeping tasks on behalf of majority-party leaders. Given the leadership's increasingly centralized control, entrepreneurial panel members can be highly productive, as long as their efforts are politically attuned. As the leadership aide noted, the Rules Committee freshmen are "very valuable to the speaker."
While some might find it surprising that a freshman would exert influence at the committee, which was once the bastion of more-senior members, a notable generational shift has taken place on the panel. Rules Chairwoman Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., is the only Democratic member who served there before the party lost its majority in 1994. Of the panel's eight other Democrats, four are freshmen, two joined the House after 2002, and the two others have served a bit more than a decade.
Republicans started the move toward putting junior lawmakers on Rules when they took control in 1995, although only one GOP member was then a freshman. Perhaps the GOP's most significant internal change at Rules came in 2005, when four veteran members departed to join Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and other more-influential House panels. Asked about the exodus from the supposedly prestigious panel, Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio, said at the time that sitting on the Rules Committee limits members because they "don't get involved as much in the substance" of legislation.
Some committee veterans have viewed these moves with dismay as a downgrading of the panel's influence. "The result is good for individual members, but it distracts from the prestige that the Rules Committee once had," said Don Wolfensberger, a former GOP chief of staff at Rules who is now director of the Congress Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
So far, the Rules Committee has clearly been "good" for Welch. But he is modest in refusing to discuss his prospects for advancing in the House. "This is a target-rich environment," he said. "I am philosophical. We work hard, and things will take care of themselves."
He reacted with mock horror to the suggestion that he might be in line to succeed either of his home-state senators, each of whom is several years older than he. "That gets me in trouble," Welch said. "I am very, very friendly with Patrick [Leahy] and Bernie. We have an excellent working relationship.... Patrick's seniority has been very helpful to me." In particular, Leahy, who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has told Welch that he enthusiastically supports his contractor-abuse measure and wants to secure Senate passage.
Although Welch noted, "I am old for a freshman," he said his age adds to his comfort level. "I am settled and I don't look at other rungs on the ladder." The death in 2004 of his wife, Joan Smith--who was a dean at the University of Vermont--after a long struggle with cancer "gave me perspective," he added. "She was from Chicago and she loved politics. She would love Congress." Welch appears to be drawing pleasure for the two of them.