WASHINGTON -- At least two of the seven lawmakers likely to join the Senate Finance Committee in January, Alfonse D'Amato and Bob Graham, are well known in the municipal bond community as advocates of public finance.
D'Amato, a New York Republican, was a staunch defender during the mid-1980s of tax-exempt industrial development bonds. Graham, a Democrat from Florida, was a cochairman of the Public Finance Caucus started three years ago by former Rep. Beryl Anthony, D-Ark.
The Republican leadership is not expected to announce until next month who will fill the empty slots on the finance panel, but lobbyists said most of the decisions have been tentatively made.
Those sources said the committee is likely to remain at 20 members, with 11 Republicans and nine Democrats. In the 103d Congress, controlled by the Democrats, the ratio was reversed.
Because several Republicans on the panel retired this year, five GOP slots needed filling. In addition to D'Amato, the likely new Republican members are Alan Simpson of Wyoming, Frank Murkowski of Alaska, Don Nickles of Oklahoma, and Larry Pressler of South Dakota.
Pressler could still be supplanted by Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Tex., who has been lobbying hard for a spot on the panel, lobbyists said. But Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, R-Kan., has been pushing just as hard to keep Gramm off the powerful, high-profile committee, those sources said. Dole and Gramm are expected to battle each other for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996.
Although Democrats will lose two seats on the committee in dropping down to nine members, enough senators retired in 1994 that the Democrats would still need to fill a slot. That seat is expected to go to Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., sources said. Moseley-Braun's office said that while the senator wants to be on the finance panel, they have not been told she has been selected.
In addition, incoming Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D., is likely to resign from the committee to devote more time to leadership duties, lobbyists said. Graham is likely to fill the spot vacated by Daschle, those sources said. Spokesman for Daschle and Graham said they could not confirm those changes.
In November 1991 Graham joined Anthony, Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., and Rep. Don Sundquist, R-Fla., in forming a congressional caucus designed to educate other lawmakers about issues concerning infrastructure and public finance.
The caucus never got off the ground, however. Anthony, the group's driving force, was defeated in his bid for reelection to his House seat only a few months later. Since then, the caucus has been inactive.
Despite the addition of two lawmakers familiar with municipal finance, the finance panel also lost several senators who were proponents of tax-exempt bonds. The committee's retirees included Senators George Mitchell, D-Maine; John Danforth, R-Mo.; Donald Riegle, D-Mich.; David Boren, D-Okla.; and David Durenberger, R-Minn.
Durenberger fought against restrictions on tax-exempt bonds during drafting of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Riegle was for years the Senate's chief advocate for mortgage revenue bonds, supported strongly by Mitchell and Danforth. Mitchell and Danforth also championed the low-income housing tax credit, while Boren was a strong supporter of 501(c)(3) bonds for housing.
