Also see below:     
Senate Committee Staff Directors Set Session Agenda    [

    Democrats Will Soon Get a Say on Iraq
    By Noam N. Levey
    The Los Angeles Times

    Wednesday 27 December 2006

Congress's new leaders aim to thwart Bush's call for a troop increase. Hearings are planned.

    Washington - After years of playing a marginal role in the Iraq war, congressional Democrats plan to move quickly next month to assert more control and undercut any White House effort to increase troop levels.

    As President Bush prepares to outline his plan for Iraq in a major speech in the next few weeks, Democratic leaders will counter with weeks of oversight hearings, summoning military officers, administration officials and foreign policy experts to Capitol Hill.

    The Democratic plans put Congress on a collision course with Bush over the direction of the nearly 4-year-old war. And they signal a new phase in a war that had been directed almost exclusively by the White House with little dissent from the GOP-controlled Capitol.

    Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), the incoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said Tuesday that he intended to call key administration officials, including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to testify at as many as a dozen hearings.

    At the same time, the chairmen of both chambers' armed services committees and of the House International Relations Committee also plan to hold hearings.

    "I hope the president and his people will listen," Biden said.

    Biden, who was elected to the Senate during the Vietnam War and who is planning a 2008 presidential run, has been among the most outspoken critics of Bush's Iraq policies; on Tuesday, he called any increase in troops "the absolute wrong strategy."

    A New Tone in Washington

    The hearing plans of Biden and the other committee chairmen highlight how much the political landscape in Washington has changed as a more critical Democratic Congress moves to directly challenge the president's management of the war.

    Democrats won control of Congress in an election that turned on voters' unhappiness with the war. But Democrats have struggled for years to articulate an alternative to the Bush administration's policies.

    As recently as last year, when Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, many in the party agonized over whether that position would permanently tar Democrats as weak. But as discontent with the war has grown, sapping Bush's popularity, Democratic lawmakers have become increasingly outspoken.

    And senior party leaders now appear to be uniting behind the call for a phased withdrawal of U.S. forces, a position that was bolstered by the release this month of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's report.

    The report did not set a specific timetable for withdrawing troops but did suggest numerous changes in the administration's policies, including more diplomatic engagement with Iraq's neighbors, another prescription embraced by congressional Democrats.

    "Democrats and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group have both laid down a roadmap for the president to begin the withdrawal of American troops from the civil war in Iraq," incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said last week. "It is now up to the president to follow that course."

    Until now, however, Democratic lawmakers had few forums for their complaints and suggestions besides the Sunday morning political talk shows.

    With control of both chambers of Congress, the party will have the power to schedule hearings, subpoena documents and put conditions on how the administration spends money on the war in Iraq.

    On Tuesday, a Bush spokesman would say only that the president recognized the "oversight role" of Congress.

    "We hope they will use this oversight role in an appropriate fashion," Deputy Press Secretary Scott Stanzel said from Crawford, Texas, where the president is spending the Christmas holiday. "That's what the American people expect - for both sides to work together for the common good."

    Bush has met with the new Democratic leaders but thus far has shown little inclination to accept their counsel on the war.

    Rather than talk of reducing the number of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, the White House has focused in the weeks since the release of the Iraq Study Group report on a temporary increase in troops that proponents say will help control the growing sectarian violence.

    Senior congressional Democrats, including Biden, have attacked that plan, arguing that beginning a phased withdrawal is the best way to force Iraqis to take responsibility for halting the violence between Sunnis and Shiites.

    As he outlined his scheduled hearings in a Tuesday conference call with the media, Biden expressed hope that by airing more viewpoints on Iraq, congressional leaders, particularly Republicans, could persuade the president to reconsider the idea of deploying more soldiers.

    "If we can, out of those hearings, generate some bipartisan consensus in the Senate, then he may very well listen to some of Š my Republican colleagues who, I believe, share my great concern," Biden said.

    A number of GOP senators - including Susan Collins of Maine and Norm Coleman of Minnesota, who are up for reelection in 2008 - have expressed skepticism about the so-called surge in troops.

    Only 12% of Americans back a troop increase, compared with 52% who prefer a timetable for withdrawal, a recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll found.

    The Roster of Witnesses

    Biden said he planned to call retired diplomats, military officers and academics, in addition to Rice, before his committee. He said he was unsure whether he would summon former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

    On the House side, Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Burlingame) is planning to call the lead authors of the Iraq Study Group report - former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.) - to appear before his International Relations Committee.

    And House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) last week promised a series of oversight hearings aimed at uncovering and correcting abuses in the war effort.

    "Asking the tough questions - 'Why did this happen? Why did you make a decision to do this or that?' - that does influence behavior," Skelton said.

    Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) has said he plans several January hearings.

    The flood of congressional hearings next month will probably shed unfavorable light on the way the Bush administration has prosecuted the war in Iraq.

    But Biden acknowledged that, short of cutting off funding, Congress has limited ability to compel the White House to dramatically change course.

    Though Congress has in the past used its power over the budget to challenge the foreign policies of presidents - including cutting funding to the government of South Vietnam in the mid-'70s - thus far no leading Democrat has called for withholding money for military operations in Iraq.

    "We should not exaggerate the ability of the United States Foreign Relations Committee or the Congress to get a president to act in a manner in which the Congress thinks is more rational or more appropriate," Biden said Tuesday. "There's nothing the United States Congress can do by a piece of legislation to alter the conduct of a war that a president decides to pursue.

    "This is President Bush's war," he said.

 

---

    Go to Original

    Senate Committee Staff Directors Set Session Agenda
    The Washington Post

    Tuesday 26 December 2006

    There is a whole new lineup of committee staff directors as the Democrats prepare to take control of the Senate next week. They all bring long years of service and expertise to highly demanding jobs, and they will be working for Democratic chairmen who have vowed to provide close scrutiny of the Bush administration and its handling of domestic policies and the war in Iraq. Here is a sampling of the staff directors of major Senate committees:

    Appropriations

    Terrence E. Sauvain, 66, graduated from the University of Notre Dame and received a master's degree from George Washington University. A Cleveland native, Sauvain started his public service career in 1965 as a budget analyst for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. He joined the Appropriations Committee in 1973. He has worked as the majority staff director once before, between 2001 and 2003.

    Sauvain and his wife, Veronica, have three children. He was awarded the University of Notre Dame's 2006 Rev. John J. Cavanaugh Award, presented annually to one of its alumni for accomplishment in public service.
Armed Services

    Richard D. DeBobes, the staff director-designate, is a veteran: 26 years in the Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, attaining the rank of captain, and 18 for the Armed Services committee - the last three as the top staffer for the incoming chairman, Sen. Carl M. Levin (Mich.).

    The spotlight will be on the committee, not only because it will focus on Iraq, but also because it includes two likely presidential candidates: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and the ranking Republican, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).

    The committee is known for its bipartisanship and, DeBobes said, "there's no reason for that not to continue."

    Still, that atmosphere may become strained. DeBobes, 68, is putting together a new three-person investigative team to challenge the administration on detainee treatment.
Budget

    Mary Naylor comes to her new post from the office of Democratic staff director, where she has served since 2001, when Sen. Kent Conrad (N.D.) became ranking Democrat. Before that, Naylor served as Conrad's deputy chief of staff.

    When these profiles were compiled, staffers said Naylor was battling through the snow en route to her hometown of Fargo, N.D., for the holidays.

    Naylor, 39, graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in political science. She began work in Conrad's office in 1989, and she served there for three years before embarking on a two-year stint on the staff of former senator Paul Simon (D-Ill.). Then, in 1993, it was back to Conrad's office, where she served as a senior legislative assistant before becoming deputy chief of staff in 1999. She became minority staff director of the Budget Committee two years later.

    Environment and Public Works

    Bettina Poirier, the first woman to serve as staff director and chief counsel for the committee, has a work history that has placed her in touch with many of the stakeholders in environmental regulation. An environmental lawyer for nearly two decades, she has served for the past six years as senior counsel to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) working on environmental and agriculture issues.

    Boxer has said "her focus will be on ... global warming issues," Poirier said. "We'll be making sure that issue gets a lot of hearings and plenty of discussion so we can look for solutions that come with a lot of benefits" to local economies, providers of technology and labor for efforts to combat the problem.

    Beyond that, Poirier, 45, will pursue Boxer's aim of "making sure that children are specifically considered in the environmental laws," such as clean air and water regulations. She points out that while many of its issues are seen as classic Democratic concerns, in fact the committee has a long history of bipartisan cooperation. "We'll look for opportunities to reach and work across the aisle on these issues," she said.

    Finance

    Russ Sullivan has been in the heart of the committee's business, tax policy, since the tax fights of President Bush's first months in office. Chief tax counsel in those days, he moved up to Democratic staff director in 2004.

    Nowhere in Congress will the transition from minority to majority be as seamless as in this committee. Under Republican leadership, Democratic staffers were given wide latitude to explore policy and oversight options, taking their cue from the close relationship between then-Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and ranking Democrat Max Baucus (Mont.). That bipartisanship is likely to continue.

    From 1995 to 1999, Sullivan, 55, was tax counsel and legislative director for then-Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.). He then became the Finance Committee Democrats' chief tax counsel under then-Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.).

    Foreign Relations

    Antony J. Blinken brings skills as an academic, journalist and policy planner to his new role. A former international lawyer, for the past four years Blinken, 44, has served as the committee's Democratic staff director and as senior foreign policy adviser to Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.). Prior to that, he served six years on the White House National Security Council staff in the Clinton administration.

    The committee's "first and most urgent challenge is Iraq," Blinken said. "Putting us on a better path in Iraq would give us much more freedom, flexibility and credibility to deal with other important issues," such as Iranian and North Korean nuclear plans, unrest in Darfur and Afghanistan, and the emergence of China and Russia.

    Health, Education, Labor and Pensions

    J. Michael Myers has worked, on and off, for the incoming committee chairman, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), for 20 years. If the past is a predictor, Myers, 51, will spend next session focused on a long list of issues including immigration and refugee policy, early childhood education, college loan costs and the effort to raise the minimum wage.

    While pursuing his master's degree in political science at Columbia University in the late 1970s, Myers worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He came to Kennedy's staff to work on foreign policy issues after six years with the humanitarian relief group Church World Service. During the Clinton administration, Myers worked for nearly two years at the Pentagon's Office of Humanitarian and Refugee Affairs, and worked on immigration and refugee issues in various roles for the Senate Judiciary Committee throughout the mid-1990s. Myers has been minority staff director on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions since 1998.

    Homeland Security

    Michael L. Alexander, 50, has served on the committee for five years and has worked on intelligence reform, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and issues surrounding disaster relief - including emergency preparedness, first responders and communications.

    Before joining the committee, he was legislative director for then-Rep. Mike Espy (D-Miss.) and served as acting deputy director of the USDA Office of Civil Rights. A native of Griffin, Ga., Alexander worked as a reporter and columnist for the Jackson Advocate in Mississippi before coming to Washington.

    He said the top priority for the committee and its incoming chairman, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) is to enact laws that implement the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission. Other priorities include improving rail and transit security, oversight of the Department of Homeland Security and securing more funding for first responders.

    Intelligence

    Andrew Johnson will serve as staff director, one of the most unusual jobs in the Senate. Unlike most other committees, the intelligence panel does not have a majority and minority staff, and it works in great secrecy in an office with no windows and a guard out front.

    Johnson, 47, received undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Maryland at College Park. Selected as a presidential management intern at the Department of Navy, he worked on contracting issues until coming to Capitol Hill in 1990 to work on defense and international affairs for then-Sen. Jim Exon (D-Neb.). Under Michigan's Levin, he came to the intelligence committee to monitor satellite and geospatial agencies. In 2004, he became the staff director for the committee vice chairman, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.).

    Johnson said the committee has much work to do in terms of oversight and restoring a bipartisan tone to its efforts. "The committee has not done its necessary work in understanding and evaluation of national intelligence," Johnson said, referring to the National Security Agency's secret surveillance program and the CIA's system for detention and interrogation.

    Judiciary

    Bruce Cohen brings 15 years' experience as a litigator and a decade as Democratic staff director and chief counsel on the Judiciary Committee to his new, majority role.

    During his early law career, Cohen, who received his law degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1975, practiced in Philadelphia and Washington, where he was a partner in the law firm of Dechert Price and Rhoads, and in Los Angeles, where he was a partner in the law firm of Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro. He spent two years in the early 1980s as chief counsel of the subcommittee on juvenile justice, when it was chaired by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). Cohen, 56, joined Sen. Patrick J. Leahy's (D-Vt.) staff in 1994 and served as chief counsel of the subcommittee on technology and the law. A year later, he became Democratic chief counsel of the subcommittee on antitrust, business rights and competition, filling that role for a year.

    Other Committees

    Veterans Affairs: William E. Brew

    Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry: Mark Halverson

    Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs: Shawn Maher

    Commerce, Science and Transportation: Margaret Cummisky

    Energy and Natural Resources: Bob Simon

    -------

    Staff writers Al Kamen, Lyndsey Layton and Elizabeth Williamson and special correspondent Zachary A. Goldfarb contributed to this report.