Pat Schroeder: A Woman of the House

1: Pioneer Pat

 Pat Schroeder had been a member of Congress for less than a year when she committed an unthinkable act for a freshman: she deliberately and publicly humiliated her committee chairman. Given the seemingly unassailable power chairmen wielded at the time, it would have been an audacious act for any lawmaker, but it was an especially breathtaking move for a relatively young woman new to the legislative arena and struggling to find her niche. Ultimately, the episode set the tone for a remarkable twenty-four-year congressional career that would make Schroeder one of the best-known women in American politics, a hero to legions of liberals who admired her uncompromising championship of underdog causes and delighted in her ability to deflate conservative opponents with her stinging wit. A thirty-two-year-old Harvard-trained lawyer and mother of two young children, Schroeder was a political neophyte when she was elected to the House from Colorado in  in her first bid for public office. She was outspoken in her opposition to theVietnamWar and during her campaign had warmly embraced virtually every left-of-center social cause of the day, from the plight of migrant workers to school busing for desegregation to women’s rights. All of which, plus the fact that she was a woman, made her an unlikely candidate for a seat on the House Armed Services Committee, which was controlled by defense hawks from both parties. It was no accident that the committee had never had a woman member. But Schroeder successfully lobbied House leaders to get on the committee . At that time, the Armed Services Committee controlled more than a third of federal discretionary spending. Schroeder reasoned that if she wanted to redirect defense dollars to the social welfare programs that were her priorities, then she would be better off working from the inside. She   1 Pioneer Pat was also anxious to expose Pentagon waste and what she saw as the folly of many defense policies. There were also parochial reasons why a seat on Armed Services would be desirable to Schroeder.The economic importance to Denver of defense spending was modest compared with the districts represented by many of the other members of the committee, but it was not insignificant. Lowry Air Force Base in Denver was an important local employer. Fitzsimons Army Medical Center was just across the city’s eastern boundary and many of the hospital’s workers lived in Denver. The army’s Rocky Mountain Arsenal, which had manufactured and stored chemical weapons, and the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, which manufactured plutonium triggers for missile warheads, were also close by, presenting serious safety and environmental problems. Denver’s suburbs were home to several large defense contractors, while the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, an hour’s drive south of Denver, created a strong air force presence in the state. Committee assignments are far more important in the House than in the Senate. They can make or break a lawmaker’s career. With  members vying to place their imprint on legislation, lawmakers tend to specialize in issues that fall under the purview of their assigned committees. That is where they have their greatest chance for influence. There are opportunities to amend bills when they reach the House floor, but those opportunities are fewer and more circumscribed than in committee. A House member’s committee assignment often determines which political action committees will contribute most generously to his or her campaign . A member of the Armed Services Committee can reasonably expect a high volume of contributions from the defense industry. Members of the Interior committee (since renamed the Natural Resources Committee) are courted by the mining, timber, oil, and gas industries. House members generally tried to avoid committees that did not attract the attention of many well-heeled industries, such as International Relations or the former Post Office and Civil Service Committee. The panels with the broadest reach— Ways and Means, which sets tax policy; Appropriations, which allocates money for all federal agencies and programs; and Commerce, which handles more bills than any other committee—generate the most contributions. Thus, trying to secure a seat on one of the House’s more powerful and important committees is usually the first task of any freshman. The jockeying often begins on fund-raising trips to Washington before the candidates are even elected. Chapter One   [18.224.4.65] Project MUSE (2024-04...