News
Service January 29, 2003
WASHINGTON -- Tracy Republican Richard Pombo won a hard-fought battle late Wednesday to oversee Western parks, forests and water, becoming chairman of the House Resources Committee.
The influential chairmanship makes Pombo a leader on issues from managing Yosemite National Park to delivering Central Valley irrigation water. It also puts him in the middle of national environmental debates that often defy party lines.
"We want a common-sense environmental policy, one that takes account of the science and the knowledge that we now have," Pombo said after his fellow Republicans ratified his selection.
A one-time rancher and Tracy City Council member whose family branched out lucratively into real estate, Pombo has political roots in the Western private-property rights movement. Though he's fallen short in past efforts to revise endangered-species protections, his aggressive advocacy has endeared him to fellow Westerners since he was first elected to Congress in 1992.
"Richard Pombo has the knowledge, the experience and the passion to sell his ideas to the American people," enthused Rep. John Doolittle, R-Rocklin.
Doolittle is a close ally of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and was a member of the panel that selected Pombo in a secret written ballot.
The Resources Committee chairmanship was the most hotly contested of all House committee leadership slots in the 108th Congress, and it wasn't decided until late Wednesday night.
Pombo won the job by securing the most votes from a Republican steering committee made up of GOP leaders and regional representatives. In part, he had to convince colleagues that he would extend his interests beyond the San Joaquin Valley.
But by defeating more senior colleagues, including two other Californians, Pombo also threw a wrench into House traditions.
"If you bypass the seniority system for political purposes, you've disrupted the orderly operations of the House," said Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, R-Md.
The moderate Gilchrest has clashed with Pombo in the past over endangered-species legislation and noted the "strong differences of opinion" among Republicans over environmental policies.