He has been called the “scariest guy in town” and the Democrats’ Eliot Ness.
Rep. Henry Waxman, the 69-year-old Californian who wrested control of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee from Congress’ longest-serving chairman yesterday, is expected to usher in far more activist approach to global warming and energy independence than his predecessor, Michigan Rep. John Dingell.
And with his longtime chief of staff Phil Schiliro just tapped by President-elect Barack Obama as his liaison with Congress, Waxman is likely to work closely with the new administration, speeding passage of Obama’s health and energy agenda, which includes spending $150 billion on renewable fuel research and one million new hybrid cars.
“We are at a unique moment in history,” Waxman told reporters after the secret-ballot vote. “Seniority is important, but it should not be a grant of property rights to be chairman for three decades or more.”
Waxman developed a reputation as a tough and tenacious inquisitor as chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, where he churned out an endless series of reports on issues ranging from Halliburton’s excessive billing on contracts in Iraq to the ineffectiveness of abstinence-only education programs.
Though he represents one of the most liberal and affluent districts in Congress – an area that includes Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Santa Monica – there is nothing slick about the man.
He grew up in an apartment over a Watts grocery store owned by his father, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants. After a stint in the California assembly, he came to Congress as part of the group of post-Watergate reformers known as the Class of 1974.
“Doing reports, conducting oversight – it’s what he has always done,” Schiliro told the Nation.
Although both Dingell and Waxman support universal health care, they have fought over the best methods of curbing global warming.
Dingell, 82, has worked on some environmental legislation, helping pass the Clean Air Act of 1990 and the raising of fuel-efficiency standards on the auto industry last year. But he has resisted previous efforts to raise fuel-efficiency standards, and environmentalists view him as an impediment.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was officially neutral in the Waxman-Dingell contest, circumvented Dingell last year by creating a temporary global warming committee chaired by Rep. Edward J. Markey of MA., a close ally.
While Dingell’s biggest contributors have been Detroit’s automakers and telecommunications giants – hardly surprising for a Michigan lawmaker and commerce chairman – Waxman’s are health-care players and unions.
The Center for Responsive Politics lists Dingell’s top donors as General Motors, Ford, BellSouth and DaimlerChrysler, AT&T and Comcast, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Waxman’s biggest contributors are the American Association for Justice, a lawyers’ trade group, the National Association of Letter Carriers, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the American Hospital Association, the Service Employees International Union and the American Medical Association, according to the watchdog group.
The leadership change is a blow to the already-reeling auto industry, another confirmation of their diminished power on Capitol Hill. Republicans, meanwhile, expressed concern that the Democratic party is shifting leftward.
“This decision sends a troubling signal from a Majority that has promised to govern from the center,” House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement. “They moved away from Chairman Dingell because he is committed to approaching energy and environmental issues in a manner that protects American jobs.”
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