Thursday, February 25, 1999
Lower profile pleases Boehner
BY PAUL BARTON
Enquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — Rep. John Boehner's new life in Congress began in earnest Wednesday. Instead of leading a GOP pep rally on the Capitol steps or finding himself surrounded with reporters as he fired back at the Clinton administration on some issue, Mr. Boehner found himself chairing a sedate subcommittee hearing on laws governing employer-provided health insurance plans.
It's a change of pace that he says he's enjoying.
“It was a new and interesting experience,” he said after he wrapped up the session.
Mr. Boehner, R-West Chester, lost his position in November as chairman of the House Republican Conference, the 4th-ranking position in the House GOP leadership. Rep. J.C. Watts of Oklahoma defeated him in caucus elections.
Now Mr. Boehner is back in his old committee, the House Education and Workforce Committee, chairing the subcommittee on employer-employee relations.
Wednesday was the first time he had ever chaired a committee hearing of any kind in his nine years in Congress.
Because of his involvement in the House leadership from 1995-1998, Mr. Boehner had little time for committee work.
But he seemed right at home Wednesday in the cavernous committee room inside the Rayburn House Of fice Building where his subcommittee meets.
“The subcommittee on employer-employee relations will come to order,” he said as he gaveled his first meeting into session.
The topic Wednesday was the 25-year-old Employee Retirement Income Security Act, which governs employer-provided health and retirement plans.
Many health-care advocates say ERISA needs changing to eliminate a provision that allows managed care providers to claim that they are not subject to state laws and thus cannot be sued.
Critics of health maintenance organizations point to endless examples of cases where patients' conditions had been made worse by an HMO's refusal to provide care and the patient was left with no legal recourse.
Representatives of business and industry, however,
warned that tampering with the provision could expose the companies that sponsor the health plans to liability as well.
Peter Kelly of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned that employers “will drop coverage if exposed to increased liability costs, with disastrous effects for working families.”
Mr. Boehner made that point himself, recalling that “in my real life” — before he came to Congress — he operated a plastics packaging firm and was able to provide health insurance to his em ployees.
If he had seen the risk of liability increase, he said, “as an employer I am not going to offer it (insurance) to my employees.”
Mr. Boehner said afterward he plans more hearings on the issue. Other topics he plans to explore, he said, include “union democracy,” a reference to how some union leaders allegedly stomp on the rights of their members.
In addition, Mr. Boehner will be holding hearings on ways to enhance private sector pension plans, an issue where is joining forces with Rep. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park.
When asked to compare a subcommittee hearing with some of the party leadership events he had to run over the past four years, Mr. Boehner said, “It was more organized.”
The change of assignments, he added, is allowing him to look into subjects he has long wanted to explore.
Mr. Boehner said, “I'm pretty excited about the opportunity to get back and do real policy work, real legislative work.”
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