Cox’s future on security panel remains unclear

Alicia Robinson

It’s unclear whether Rep. Chris Cox will continue to lead the House

Homeland Security Committee when Congress reconvenes in January,

though House Speaker Dennis Hastert will recommend the committee be

made permanent.

Cox, who represents Newport Beach, was reelected to a two-year

term as chairman of the House Policy Committee on Tuesday, during a

lame-duck session expected to last into next week. Congress is

meeting to try to pass bills dealing with appropriations and the 9/11

Commission’s recommendations on intelligence reform.

The House Homeland Security Committee was established in 2002.

Representatives must vote in January on whether to change the House

rules so the committee will be permanent, a move Cox said is

supported by a majority of the chairmen of other House committees.

“Even though some committees object because they would lose turf,

a majority of the committees are in support,” Cox said.

But Cox’s position as homeland security chairman depends on how

Hastert makes the recommendation.

“It matters whether the proposal that the speaker puts before the

House is for a permanent standing committee or a permanent select

committee,” Cox said.

The speaker chooses the members of a select committee, but members

of the House leadership -- Cox is the fifth-ranked Republican --

can’t chair standing committees.

At the moment, Cox’s top priority is getting an intelligence

reform bill to a House vote before the year ends. There’s still

discussion over whether the bill should just address reorganization

of federal agencies such as the CIA or include the 9/11 Commission’s

broader recommendations, Cox said.

“We’ve got to get this done by the end of the year, or all of the

work of all our committees will have to be recreated,” he said.

Cox’s colleague, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who represents Costa Mesa,

hopes to tie up other loose ends before the session is over. There

are still disagreements between the House and Senate over his bill

promoting commercial space travel, and today he planned to introduce

a resolution condemning atrocities such as the beheading of hostages

and the recent murder of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, Rohrabacher

said.

“This condemns that type of barbarism,” he said. “That bill may be

expedited and could be brought up in a matter of days.”

Observers seemed skeptical that the 109th Congress will be able to

accomplish much.

Budget decisions need to be made for domestic agencies such as the

departments of education and labor, but Republican legislators don’t

agree on how much deficit spending is appropriate, UC Irvine

political scientist Louis DeSipio said.

“A lot of the federal budget is now being covered by debt, and I

think that some of the Republican party, [though] certainly not all,

would like to see that come down a bit,” he said.

There’s also not the sense of urgency there would be if a new

president were coming into office or control of Congress was going to

shift, 70th District Assemblyman John Campbell said.

“Their challenge will be getting it done in a short session, where

a number of people are going to be leaving,” Campbell said.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.