November 19, 1998

The Honorable Bob Livingston
Member of Congress
U.S. House of Representatives
2406 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Bob:

Congratulations on your nomination for Speaker of the House. I look forward to working with you over the next two years to re-establish a productive relationship between Republicans and Democrats.

In that regard, I am writing about a matter of critical importance to all members of the House Democratic Caucus, including the Democratic Members of the Committee on Commerce.

The 1998 election provided the Republican party with the narrowest margin for a majority party in the House since the 1952 election. Voters gave the Republican party control of the House. But they did not vote to disenfranchise those citizens who voted for Democratic Members or endorse denying their representatives a fair share of committee assignments.

During the past two Congresses, your party established committee ratios that severely penalized Democratic Members, and led to the consideration of partisan legislation. For example, in the current Congress, despite your party controlling just 52.4 percent of the seats, Republicans controlled from 54.0 percent to 69.2 percent of the seats on various committees, with the highest ratios on the most important committees. Republicans on the Commerce Committee, for example, controlled 54.9 percent of the seats.

The narrowness of the Republican margin suggests that the American people expect the two parties to work together in order to achieve significant progress in improving their lives. In particular, the Commerce Committee will be considering many health, environmental, and consumer issues, among others, of great importance to the American people. The first test of a bipartisan spirit will be the establishment of committee ratios that do not unfairly penalize Americans who elected Democrats to represent them in Congress. Committees that do not reflect the general makeup of the House are more likely to report legislation that cannot be enacted into law, or block popular legislation like the Patients' Bill of Rights or revitalization of brownfields, and will only lead to further gridlock.

We have an opportunity now for a fresh start. You can set the tone for your relationship with our Caucus by remedying this glaring inequity. This single step can begin to move us beyond the highly partisan atmosphere of the last several years.

I hope that you will meet with Minority Leader Gephardt at the earliest possible opportunity to resolve this matter, and to set the foundation for a productive relationship between our two parties.

Sincerely,

JOHN D. DINGELL
RANKING MEMBER

cc: The Honorable Richard A. Gephardt, Minority Leader
The Honorable Tom Bliley, Chairman,Committee on Commerce

Back to the Public Record Home Page