U.S. House Moderates Ready to Flex Muscle

WASHINGTON (Reuter) - In the House of Representatives that starts work in January, power may be wielded by a bipartisan alliance of moderates aiming to prevail over the extremes in either party.

From erasing the deficit to protecting the environment, centrists in the closely divided House will build their bridge across party lines even as President Clinton is busy building his own.

This month's election sliced the House Republican majority from 235-198 to 227-205, plus one independent who usually votes with Democrats, with two seats still undecided. That margin may allow a handful of Republicans to tip the balance on party-line votes when the new Congress convenes Jan. 7.

"Any group of 10 Republicans that wants to make a point can do it," said Delaware Rep. Mike Castle, a leader of the "Tuesday Lunch Bunch" of three dozen Republican moderates. "You use such power very cautiously but it is there."

Republican moderates say their influence helped assure passage last session of the Kassebaum-Kennedy bill allowing portability of health care, appropriations bills adding more money for education and the environment and a welfare bill. Now they are ready to delve into these areas and more.

"We are a stronger group for sure in the new session," said Michigan Republican Fred Upton, another leader of the Tuesday Lunch Bunch. "Our numbers are about the same while the Republican margin has slipped by about 10."

Adding to their potency, moderate Republicans almost reached agreement last session with moderate and conservative Democrats on a plan to balance the budget by 2002. Republican and Democratic moderates agreed they did not want the large tax cuts proposed by Republican leaders.

"There are a lot of us who put balancing the budget ahead of tax cuts," Castle said. "So the tax cuts would have to be wholly eliminated or reduced."

Conservative Democrat Gary Condit of California, who worked with the Republicans, said tax cuts will be an issue again next year. "The big rub will be whether Republicans insist on incorporating a tax cut into the budget," he said. "We hope they will not do that."

In their final offer to Clinton in budget negotiations, Republicans leaders proposed a tax cut of $124 billion over six years. Clinton has proposed his own, smaller tax cuts.

The power of the new middle is reflected in the words of House Speaker Newt Gingrich as he welcomed Republicans to Washington last week, telling them they have a "moral obligation to make this system work." Gingrich promised an "implementation Congress" to get things done, unlike the revolutionary Republican House of 1994 that passed bills too radical for the Senate and Clinton.

But moderate Republicans are aware conservatives are still in control and some of their leaders are less accomodating than Gingrich's words suggest. They have quietly circulated a pre-election news clip from the Fort Worth Start-Telegram quoting attacks on them by House Majority Leader Dick Armey.

"One of the things we've learned is we've got to be strong enough to outvote our own moderates," the Texas Republican, who was angered when Republican moderates joined forces with Democrats and raised the minimum wage, is quoted as saying.

"We had an awful lot of guys saying 'Look if you toss those (moderate) guys a bone they won't bite you.' We tossed them a bone and they bit us in the leg."

Moderate Democrats say that kind of talk is heavy-handed and counterproductive for Republican leaders. "I think you'll now see a maturing of the moderates in the Republican party to the point that they will reassert independent judgment on some of these matters," said Rep. John Tanner, a Tennessee Democrat who has worked closely with moderate Republicans.