National Center for Policy Analysis

MONTH IN REVIEW

Government

March, 1996

CITIZEN LEGISLATORS

South Carolina may soon join the ranks of states whose legislatures meet for less than six months out of the year, according to Lieutenant Governor Bob Peeler, who favors a shorter session for the state's general assembly.

The legislatures of 29 states meet for less than six months every year. For example,

• The Georgia legislature meets for 40 days every year.
• North Carolina's legislature only has a full session every other year.
• Legislators in Wyoming meet for only six weeks, while the Virginia legislature meets for only two months.

Shorter sessions, according to Peeler, would allow legislators to spend more time with the people they represent and more people would be able to take the time off to serve.

Source: Bob Peeler, "A Shorter Legislative Session," Capitol Comment No. 62, February 1996, South Carolina Policy Council Education Foundation, 1419 Pendleton Street, Columbia, SC 29201, (803) 779-5022.

CHARITY PROMOTES REGULATORY AGENDA

The American Lung Association (ALA) spends less than 1 percent of its budget on direct assistance to lung patients, 42.5 percent on staff salaries and a growing portion on political activity. This charitable organization is becoming a political lobbyist for the regulatory state.

A case in point is the ALA's lobbying for stricter regulations by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that do little to improve public health, but add billions of dollars of unnecessary regulatory costs.

• The ALA has filed "friendly" lawsuits to force EPA to raise its impractical standards by 25 percent, a move that would cost businesses and consumers in just Southeast Michigan an estimated $55 million per year for new auto emissions testing.
• The ALA received grants from the EPA of $4,125,660 from 1990 to 1994, a total of 34 grants during the past six years and additional grants for outreach activities related to the EPA's emissions inspection program.
• The ALA ran radio advertisements against two U.S. Representatives for supporting cost-benefit analyses of proposed government regulations.
• It has received $200,000 in contributions over the past three years from Envirotest, Inc., a company that won a lucrative contract in Pennsylvania to operate special auto emissions testing centers.
• It received a $150,000 grant from the hazardous waste incineration industry, while campaigning against their competitor, the cement kiln industry, which burns hazardous wastes.

Source: Thomas J. DiLorenzo, "Politics Versus Health: The American Lung Association's Regulatory Agenda," Organization Trends, January 1996, Capital Research Center, 727 15th Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20005, (202) 393-2600.

EFFECTS OF TERM LIMITS IN THE STATES

The U.S. Senate is scheduled in April to debate a constitutional amendment to limit senators to two six-year terms and representatives to six two-year terms. Since voters in 20 states have already amended their constitutions to limit the terms of their state legislators, results at the state level should be of more than passing interest.

Studies of the Arizona, California, Oregon and Arkansas legislatures -- all of which face term limits -- show that seniority now plays a lesser role, legislators are more willing to change the system, and freshmen are more eager to hit the ground running.

• Observers in Arizona noted that the composition of the legislature is changing from professional politicians primarily concerned with their careers to citizen legislators more intent on fiscal restraint, and then a timely return to private life.
• In California, one significant effect has been a higher turnover rate -- an average of 36 percent in the Assembly since 1990, versus 21 percent before term limits.
• Observers in Oregon say new legislators are "clearly more agenda-oriented," with a "new focus and intensity."
• The greatest effect of term limits in Arkansas is reported to be tougher ethics laws.

Source: Claude R. Marx, "Limit Terms, and They Go Home," Investor's Business Daily, March 13, 1996.

CONGRESS IS CHANGING

A study of results in congressional elections shows that the Congress elected in 1994 is historically different from past Congresses, and not just in the switch in party control from Democrat to Republican.

For example, the proportion of House incumbents who have won reelection with at least 60 percent of the major party vote is declining -- reversing a trend that almost guaranteed reelection to incumbents and that some voters found alarming.

• Incumbents running for reelection who won by 60 percent or more increased from about three-fifths in the 1950s and early 1960s to three-fourths in the 1970s, and to almost nine-tenths in the late 1980s.
• In the 1990s, however, the figure dropped from 88.5 percent to 76.4 percent in 1990, to 65.6 percent in 1992 and finally to 64.5 percent in 1994.
• As a result, more than two-thirds of the senators and over half the representatives serving in the 104th Congress received less than 55 percent of the vote.

In the 1994 elections, 56 of the 60 seats that switched party hands went from Democrat to Republican control, while not one Republican incumbent seat went Democratic. Thus the Congress is not only majority Republican, but relatively inexperienced.

• The number of House members serving their second term leapt from 9 percent in 1992 to 23 percent in 1994.
• There were 86 first-term (or freshman) members in 1994, so that 52 percent have now been elected in the 1990s.
• And the number of members serving four to six terms declined from 25 percent in 1992 to 16 percent.
• However, the number of long-term incumbents in the senate grew to 25, the highest number since 1953.

Interestingly, in every midterm election but one since the Civil War, the party of the president has lost ground in the House of Representatives, but in 10 of those midterm elections, the president's party gained seats in the Senate. In no election since 1954 has more than 14 percent of the 435 seats changed party hands.

Source: Source: Norman J. Ornstein, Thomas E. Mann and Michael J. Malbin, Vital Statistics on Congress 1995-1996 (Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute, 1996).