WASHINGTON -- The House Energy and Commerce Committee, long a graveyard for bank securities powers legislation, is likely to undergo a shake-up when Republicans take control of Congress next year.
A key issue is who the new chairman won't be: Rep. John D. Dingell, D-Mich. Rep. Dingell's father helped write the Glass-Steagall Act in 1933, and he has used his position as committee chairman to block. efforts to expand bank securities powers.
In his place, Republicans are expected to name either Rep. Carlos Moorhead, R-Calif., or Rep. Thomas Bliley, R-Va. Rep. Moorhead is the ranking Republican, but many GOP lawmakers think he may be too weak to stand up to Rep. Dingell, who will assume the role of ranking minority member. As a result, Mr. Bliley probably has the edge.
"Based on his relationship with Gingrich, Bliley is going to get it," said Richard Hohlt, a financial institutions lobbyist. Mr. Hohlt described Rep. Blilely as part of the inner circle of Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., who is expected to become the speaker of the House in January.
Either Republican would likely be more friendly to banking interests than Rep. Dingell.
However, Republicans are raising the possibility that Energy and Commerce will lose its jurisdiction over securities industry issues. Rep. 'David Dreier, R-Calif., a former banking committee member, is leading a Republican effort to restructure House committees.
Republican congressional sources said Rep. Dreier is considering recommending that the panel's securities industry mandate -- now housed in the subcommittee on telecommunications and finance -- be moved to the banking committee.
That would align the House Banking Committee's jurisdiction with that of its Senate counterpart and streamline the process of considering issues involving both the banking and secuffties industries.
Energy and Commerce has the largest jurisdiction of any committee in the House and, as a result, Rep. Dingell has been a power that even the leadership was forced to reckon with.
"The huge jurisdiction of Energy and Commerce has been a thorn in the leadership's side," said Karen Shaw, president of ISD/Shaw Inc., which tracks bank legislation and regulation. "The Republicans have a good opportunity to change that."
Rep. Jim Leach the presumptive new chairman of the House Banking Committee, said Friday that a transfer of jurisdiction from Energy and Commerce to his panel is "a very definite possibility." However, he said it was too early to say for certain what might happen.
Regardless of whether committee jurisdictions are reshuffled, banks will likely fare better in the next Congress, said Edward L. Yingling, chief lobbyist for the American Bankers Association.
"Without Rep. Dingell as the chairman, it lessens the prospects for mutual funds and derivatives bills," Mr. Yingling said.
Of equal significance, the House Republican leadership is considering moving the banking committee's housing panel to a new committee that is being referred to as the Empowerment Committee.
For years, liberal Democrats have sought out assignments on the banking committee solely because of its jurisdiction over housing. If housing i,s moved, the committee would likely evolve into a much more conservative panel, as liberal Democrats opt for other assignments.
For now, however, it is the prospect of a shake-up at Energy and Commerce that has gripped the attention of the banking industry.
"This issue sticks out way above everything else," said Joe Belew, president of the Consumer Bankers Association. "Dingell was such a force and had such a stated agenda, and now that he doesn't have control of that agenda, it's going to have a big effect."
Rep. Dingell introduced legislation during the last congressional session that would have moved all securities out of banks and into a separate subsidiary regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Although the bill was not passed, it raised the ire of members of the banking industry, who felt they would have been unduly burdened by having to set up an outside company to manage securities.
Rep. Dingell's influence extended well beyond the House floor, however.
"Things are going to change with the banking regulators," Ms. Shaw said. "He's peppered the regulatory agencies with letters that have had a chilling effect on their wanting to expand bank powers."
