Word: waxman
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Washington, Michigan Representative John Dingell, lost his powerful perch as head of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in a caucus vote on Thursday. For 28 years, Dingell had helped craft every piece of environmental legislation, but he will now have to hand his gavel to California Representative Henry Waxman, a darling of environmental groups...
...Dingell, who was elected to Congress in 1955 to fill his father's seat after John Dingell Sr.'s death, has held the chairmanship since 1981. For almost as long, he has been tussling with Waxman on energy and environmental issues. The two battled over not only their beliefs but also their home-state interests; Dingell has been fiercely protective of Detroit's auto industry and the jobs it provides, while Waxman has championed environmental interests. Canny legislators both, they have been able to work together when compromise has served each of their interests, as it did with the Clean...
Nowhere but on Capitol Hill could a 69-year-old politician serving his 17th term be considered a Young Turk. But in challenging and unseating a committee chairman known as "the Truck," California Congressman Henry Waxman has succeeded in the kind of power sortie that happens only once every few decades in Congress - and put himself in a position where he will help determine the fate of much of Barack Obama's domestic agenda...
...Many congressional veterans were surprised when House Democrats, meeting as a caucus, voted 137-122 to oust Michigan's John (the Truck) Dingell, 82, as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and give the post to Waxman. Few jobs in Congress are as powerful; the committee has one of the largest swaths of jurisdiction, encompassing energy, health-care and environmental issues. Waxman's elevation upends one of the most revered principles on Capitol Hill: the seniority system. "It's just been buried," says Representative Charlie Rangel of New York, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee...
...When Waxman decided to make a bid for Dingell's chairmanship, his supporters argued that Dingell would be an obstacle to Obama's efforts to wean Detroit - and the country - off its dependence on oil. Dingell's supporters, who included a number of other committee chairmen, expressed concern that Waxman would not be sensitive enough to the need to protect jobs as the country goes through that transition. Dingell's ouster also comes as the big automakers are foundering in their bid for a $25 billion bailout, another measure of the industry's declining power on Capitol Hill...