Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), a cowboy-hat-wearing congressman long known for his antipathy toward environmental regulation, is the new chairman of the House Committee on Resources. Since first being elected to Congress in 1992, Pombo, who represents a district in rural north-central California, has cultivated a staunchly anti-environmental record. So perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that House Republicans, emboldened by their strong showing in the midterm elections, have tapped Pombo for a position that will put him at the center of environmental policy on Capitol Hill.
Soon after arriving in Congress in the early 1990s, Pombo led an attack on the Endangered Species Act, but then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) never let the drastic cuts in protections that Pombo was proposing reach the floor. Ever since, however, Pombo has been the darling of right-wingers seeking to demolish wide-ranging environmental protections established in the 1970s.
Pombo has voted against protecting drinking-water standards, against increasing fuel economy and for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- an issue that will likely re-emerge during the next Congress. His lifetime scores from the League of Conservation Voters hover around 8 percent.
"For someone to get such low lifetime scores," says Dan Vicuña, a spokesman for the league's education fund, "effectively means that he has one of the poorest records in Congress on common-sense protections of clean air, clean water and wilderness." Moreover, says Vicuña, Pombo has managed to "distinguish himself not only in terms of the quantity of anti-protections votes but also in the overwhelmingly poor quality of his whole record. He built his career on rolling back such protections."
Property-rights zealots, of course, love him. G.B. Oliver III, vice president of the Paragon Foundation -- a right-wing organization that opposes environmental regulations -- told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this month that Pombo's appointment was "the most exciting news that private land owners and resource producers have had in 10 years." Mike Hardiman, now a lobbyist for the American Land Rights Association -- another anti-environment group -- was formerly Pombo's press secretary, according to The Modesto Bee. Pombo has received a 100 percent rating every year on the association's congressional scorecard.
During the last election cycle, the vast majority of Pombo's campaign contributions came -- strings attached, one imagines -- from big agribusiness, ranching and property-rights organizations. His largest contributors included the National Cattlemen's Beef Association PAC, the Western United Dairymen's Association and the National Chicken Council.
There are, of course, countless right-wing ideologues in Congress with terrible voting records and uncomfortably close ties to big business: What makes Pombo someone to really worry about is his new position.
The House Resources Committee has jurisdiction over -- take a deep breath -- the National Park System, the National Wilderness Preservation System, the Wild and Scenic Rivers System, the National Trails System, national heritage areas, military parks and battlefields, national cemeteries, parks in Washington, D.C., the erection of monuments, forest reservations, forest management, outdoor recreation plans, fisheries management, international fisheries agreements, aquaculture, seafood safety, wildlife resources (including research, restoration, refuges and conservation), the protection of coastal and marine environments, irrigation and reclamation projects, the U.S. Geological Survey, conservation of the U.S. uranium supply, mining interests, mining regulation and enforcement, long-range mineral programs, deep seabed mining and mineral resources on public lands, including petroleum.
In other words, just about everything on environmental policy.
"The House Resources Committee is the committee that Americans trust to conserve the wildlife and wild lands that they care about," says Bart Semcer, a policy analyst with the Sierra Club. "Pombo's track record proves that he has an agenda, and that he is openly hostile to the environmental protections Americans care about."
A Republican committee staff of about 40 and a swelling budget of almost $6 million are now at the disposal of Pombo's "hostile" agenda. He will serve as master of ceremonies for the largest panel (with more than 50 members) in the House, setting legislative and investigative agendas while deciding which issues to pursue vigorously and which to abandon completely.
Perhaps worst of all, Pombo leapfrogged six senior Republicans ahead of him in line for the post. Some have attributed this ascendance to Pombo's close alliance with new House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), but Pombo likely appealed to the House Republican leadership for two other reasons. First, California is a politically important state (four other major House committees are now chaired by California Republicans), and second, Pombo, unlike more centrist Republicans, will probably not be modest in his efforts.
"This is the guy DeLay wanted," Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Col.), who backed another senior committee member for the position, told The Associated Press. "But I think it's a real bad mistake to jump him over so many very capable people. I think it will create an enormous amount of ill will among members of the committee. Many of them have grumbled to me already."
They'd better do more than grumble in the months ahead. Otherwise environmental policy is in for a big dose of Pombo.
Mathieu Vella is a Prospect intern.