Politician to break rules for Committee Chair

Giovanni Gonzalez/Staff Writer

After the midterm elections, Republicans are revamping many programs with their newly found majority share of Congress. One such program is the Energy and Commerce Committee.

After pushing out the former chair, Henry A. Waxman, the two Republicans running for chairperson will likely be Joe Barton of Texas and Fred Upton of Michigan. Despite his profitable past as the committee chair, Barton is trying to break rules to get reelected. There can be no more tolerance for rule bending in politics if we are to pull our country out of this recession and get back on track, especially when it is for no good reason.

Barton’s past record is far from comforting. He is considered by many to be in the pocket of big oil companies, receiving over 1.5 million dollars in campaign contributions from them. He also apologized to BP Oil and Gas for a recent legislation that required them to pay 20 billion dollars to those affected by the oil spill in the Gulf. Barton is simply a politician looking to break the rules to be in charge and once again collaborate with big oil companies by providing looser regulations and lower taxes in exchange for campaign contributions.

Barton already served a term as head of the Energy and Commerce Committee starting in 2005 and also served two more terms as the highest-ranking Republican in the same committee, filling his three-term limit. Yet, Barton is still fervently lobbying to get a waiver that allows him to serve additional terms as head of the committee.

Although waivers such as these have been granted in the past, they were given only on rare occasions. The last time a waiver was granted to several Republican candidates was in 1994, when the Republican Party retook the majority of Congress for the first time in 40 years. Barton is hoping to use these past instances of rule bending to acquire a seat as chairperson once more.

Furthermore, obtaining this waiver is not the only rule Barton is trying to break. He also wants to let first-year members of Congress serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee if he gets the seat when the rules state committee members must have at least one year of experience before serving on such. This would allow inexperienced and susceptible politicians to have seats in a committee that regulates how and what kind of energy is used and how it affects the environment.

Barton’s rival, Fred Upton, is also vying for chairperson of the Energy and Commerce Committee. Although Upton’s Energy Committee agenda has more to do with repealing Obama’s health care reform and denying federal funding to abortion programs, at least he is playing by the rules and pursuing his chairmanship honestly, using proper channels. Because of this, he can be considered a lesser of two evils, although his agenda inconveniently leaves out tough energy issues such as alternative energy sources and oil regulations.

The Energy and Commerce Committee’s chairperson seat cannot be taken lightly, as it can determine future policies on oil drilling and alternative energy sources. We cannot have someone who is working hard to break rules obtain that kind of power in legislation, when the rules he is trying to break are clearly there for a reason. Allowing this kind of rule bending is a step in a direction that may eventually put democracy at risk.