Cochran, Lott clash over space for Dems

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran said yesterday that it is his longstanding policy to allow minority Democrats to use space in committee-controlled rooms when they ask, putting him at odds with fellow Mississippi Republican Trent Lott, the chairman of the Rules Committee.

Lott appears to be powerless to stop such hearings under current rules, but yesterday he did not back down from a threat to seek retribution against Democrats if they hold hearings like the one they had on Monday.

Lott is irritated by the Democratic Policy Committee’s (DPC) use of a committee hearing room to hear testimony from retired high-ranking military officers who criticized the administration’s prosecution of the Iraq war. Lott, who did not attend Monday’s hearing, expressed concern that the Democratic-sponsored event resembled a regular committee hearing and was used to try to gain partisan political advantage in advance of the election.

Cochran said Lott has not spoken to him about the issue and indicated that he will continue to grant Democrats access to the room in question for the time being.

“Any members of the Appropriations Committee … are given permission to use it,” Cochran said.

Republican aides said it is not uncommon for the minority party to use committee rooms for various events.

“We’re as nonpartisan as we can be in the allocation of rooms,” said Armed Services Committee spokesman John Ullyot. Indeed, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the ranking Democrat on the panel, used an Armed Services committee room to issue a report on weapons of mass destruction just a few weeks before the 2004 presidential election.

Lott said Monday’s DPC event could set “a very bad precedent for the institution” if it “leads to them having Democratic hearings and us having Republican hearings.”

The DPC forum, the first in a planned series of Iraq oversight panels, actually included a Republican, Rep. Walter Jones (N.C.). DPC Chairman Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sent a letter last week to Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Republican Policy Committee (RPC) Chairman Jon Kyl (Ariz.) inviting all GOP senators to the DPC hearing.

They also issued a verbal invitation to Republican House members to join them.

Jones was the only Republican who took them up on the offer. He arrived in the hearing room early and used a makeshift white-paper nametag rather than the more-permanent triangular wooden blocks that senators use to identify themselves at hearings.

Lott, who knows Jones and knew his father, former Democratic Rep. Walter Jones, Sr., said he was “surprised … and frankly disappointed” when told of Jones’s participation in the hearing.

It is not clear whether Lott would seek to enact a change to the Senate’s rules in order to quash future DPC hearings.

A former party leader in both the House and Senate, Lott has more of a penchant for partisan warfare than Cochran, the chairman of the powerful spending panel.

Cochran pledged to follow the rules, which he said currently give the committee control of the room in question.

“Whatever the Senate decides the appropriate use of our Senate committee hearing rooms is, we will respect,” Cochran said.

Democratic aides noted yesterday that the DPC and its counterpart, the RPC, are mentioned in a 1947 law that provides for taxpayer funds to be used to reimburse party policy committee witnesses for necessary expenses. However, the law does not appear to address the use of space in the Capitol complex.

In the House, Democrats frequently complain that they have difficulty booking rooms, which are under House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) control.

Lott said he feared that DPC hearings, which have been conducted throughout the current Congress with little fanfare, could lead to increased partisanship.