Wilson, Brown vie for key seat

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Henry Brown, a Republican from Hanahan, twice was in the running for coveted committee seats last year.

GOP leaders passed him over for a spot on mighty Ways and Means. And he stepped aside so Joe Wilson, a Republican from Springdale, could sit on Armed Services.

Now Brown hopes to be rewarded for his patience and seniority with a spot on the House Appropriations Committee — perhaps the most coveted of the coveted.

But it was with some disappointment last week that Brown discovered another S.C. Republican is also gunning for Appropriations: Joe Wilson.

“I’m not sure what sparked his interest in Appropriations,” Brown said. “I was surprised.”

According to conventional Congressional wisdom, House leaders avoid appointing members of the same party from the same state to a committee as sought-after as Appropriations.

That committee decides what the federal government’s 13 major spending bills will include and exclude — and their states tend to garner a relatively larger share of federal dollars.

The 65-member committee likely will have two spots available for Republicans next year. As in past years, the competition begins months in advance. At least four Republicans — including Brown and Wilson — are vying for the two spots.

Brown, elected in 2000, said he hopes Wilson, elected in 2001, will back off. But he didn’t ask him to.

“It’s his choice; everybody has the right to petition,” said Brown, who would give up his seats on the Budget, Veterans Affairs and Transportation committees for a spot on Appropriations.

Wilson said when he wrote to House leaders in the fall about his interest in Appropriations, Brown had expressed an intention to petition for Ways and Means as his first choice and Appropriations as a back-up. Now, Wilson said, he understands that Appropriations is Brown’s first choice.

“I obviously wish we weren’t running for the same committee,” said Wilson, who would give up his seats on Armed Services and Education for Appropriations.

But he said he hopes Republican victories in the November elections will increase the number of GOP seats on the committee, and make it easier for two S.C. Republicans to sit on it together.

“I would like to see us both succeed,” Wilson said.

An S.C. Republican has not served on Appropriations since the early 1980s, when former U.S. Rep. Carroll Campbell, who later became governor, held a seat. U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, a Democrat from Columbia, has sat on the committee since 1999.

Wilson makes his case for Appropriations by stressing his record as a “team player.” He is famous in GOP circles for his willingness to campaign and raise money for Republicans across the country.

Brown points to his experience with fiscal matters as former chairman of the S.C. House’s Ways and Means Committee.

And Brown wondered aloud whether Wilson, a lawyer, might not fit better on another important committee — “I thought Judiciary.”

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Objects in your mirror may be closer than they appear.”

— U.S. senator, presidential candidate and Seneca native John Edwards, D-N.C., on the possibility that he is gaining on U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.

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THIS WEEK IN WASHINGTON

After a week’s hiatus, both the House and Senate return to the Capitol and to a busy schedule of hearings on some controversial topics and hefty spending bills. A few highlights:

WEDNESDAY

• Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan testifies on the nation’s economic outlook before the House Budget Committee.

• A Senate Armed Services subcommittee plans a hearing on preventing and responding to sexual harassment in the military.

THURSDAY

• Air Force secretary John Roche testifies before the House Armed Services Committee on the president’s proposed defense budget.

Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com