Dingell may seek Health panel chair

Ousted Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) may make a bid for another, less prestigious gavel.

Dingell’s supporters on the committee are encouraging him to take the chairmanship of the panel’s Health subcommittee, in the wake of Rep. Henry Waxman’s (D-Calif.) successful coup last week.

{mosads}“Healthcare has been his passion since he was elected,” said a top aide to one of the lawmakers who pitched Dingell on the idea. “National healthcare is his life’s dream.”

In every Congress since being elected in 1955, Dingell has introduced universal healthcare reform legislation.

The prospect of Dingell, dean of the House, seeking a subcommittee chairmanship, is an example of the ramifications of last week’s ouster roiling through the committee and the House Democratic Caucus.

It probably also worries Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.), who now has the Health panel. A spokesman said Monday that he had not heard about Dingell possibly taking the gavel, adding that Pallone doesn’t want to give it up. Pallone supported Waxman over Dingell.

A Dingell spokesman did not comment for this article.

The musical-chairs chatter comes as stunned committee staffers worry for their jobs, while others are poised to put the Dingell committee era firmly in the past.

Jostling for subcommittee chairmanships will be the next caucus battle after Waxman’s victory, which, coupled with changes in leadership, have appeared to move the Democratic Caucus to the left and strengthen the hand of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

According to aides, subcommittee chairmanships are given based on seniority. But a member can challenge the assignment, forcing a closed-door vote among the Democratic members of the committee.

“We’re in this new era where seniority doesn’t seem to matter anymore,” sighed a Democratic aide.

Members and staffers are also beginning to puzzle over the logistics of a Waxman reign. Waxman is said to have allowed subcommittee chairmen to pick three staffers, while Dingell gave them one.

Dingell also handed off more work and hearings to his subcommittee chairmen, while Waxman tended toward full committee hearings, according to an analysis of a key staffer of a Dingell supporter.

And the potential for numerous challenges to subcommittee chairs highlights some complicating arithmetic.

While Waxman triumphed in the caucus-wide vote, Dingell appeared to enjoy more support among the members of Energy and Commerce.

At least 15 of the returning Democratic committee members publicly supported Dingell, giving him a majority of that group. But the committee is set to get as many as five more Democrats when seats are apportioned.

{mospagebreak}Among them is likely to be Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa), who gave a speech in support of Waxman before last week’s vote.

Dingell’s partisans, however, say that at least three more members committed to Dingell before the vote. That would mean that if as many as four Waxman supporters were added to the committee, a majority of the new panel still would be Dingell supporters.

{mosads}But subcommittee and policy decisions may not fall along those lines.

Still, it has consequences both for congressional careers and the policy of the new committee. Waxman’s supporters are hoping people will be ready to work together. But Dingell supporters say Waxman may find the committee and new members aren’t ready to move left on key issues like climate change.

“Looking at the membership of the committee, this is not going to be a slam-dunk,” said a lobbyist who supported Dingell.

Almost as soon as the vote was over Thursday, Reps. Gene Green (D-Texas) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), both Dingell whips, sent letters to their fellow members of the committee, announcing their bids to keep their subcommittee chairmanships.

But another Dingell whip, Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), is believed to have the biggest target on his back.

Hailing from Virginia’s coal country, he has shared Dingell’s reluctance to enact strict new climate change restrictions.

He also chairs the subcommittee in the thick of the fray — Energy and Air Quality. Members are watching to see if Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Pelosi’s point man on climate change, will seek to move from his Telecommunications subcommittee chairmanship to oust Boucher.

Pelosi said last week that she wants Markey to continue to chair the Select Committee on Global Warming she created in 2006 to put a focus on climate change, which she calls her “flagship issue.”

In addition, aides speculate that Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) or Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), the vice chairwoman of the panel, could seek subcommittee chairmanships.