ustxtxb_obs_1972_10_20_50_00003-00000_000.pdf

M.110v1-0.11.17 . +.,…e. The job … Austin “He gets the job done for Texas.” That’s Sen. John Tower’s campaign slogan this year. Tower’s media people are striving to present him as an experienced, effective, hard-working senator, a man with a sober grip on the handle of power, a Congressman so valuable to Texas interests that it would be foolhardy to trade him in on a novice, much less a Democratic novice who actually has shaken the traitorous hand of Ramsey Clark. A four-color tabloid recently inserted in 12 Texas newspapers stated, “The Tower record is impressive. In 11 years, his name has been scribbled on nearly a thousand pieces of legislation . . . bills that have benefitted virtually every Texan.” “Scribbled” is an accurate word in many of these instances. A senator may become a sponsor of a bill by scribbling his name on it any time during the legislative process, even after the bill has been passed by the Senate. All it takes is the consent of his fellow senators, a courtesy that is rarely denied. John Tower has scribbled his name on hundreds of pieces of legislation, but he personally has passed very, very few bills. Probably the prime reason for Tower’s poor legislative record is that although he is Texas’ “senior senator,” he’s a mere fledgling in the Halls of Congress. He has served only 11 years, less than two terms. Under the Senate’s seniority system, a member is usually hitting his stride after about 30 years in office. Tower ranks 48th out of 100 in seniority. He’s the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, third-ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee and ranking Republican on the Military Construction Authorization Subcommittee of the Armed Services Committee. Tower’s position as number 48 in the Senate and the fact that he is a member of the minority party virtually guarantee that his name will not appear on any major pieces of legislation. Such honors are for the bigger boys. Still, Tower’s campaign puffery presents him as one of the big boys; so it seems fair to examine his legislative record and let Texans decide for themselves whether “he gets the job done for Texas.” THE OBSERVER culled the ‘Congressional Record from January, 1966, through December, 1971, to see how many bills Tower introduced and how many he passed. \(The 1972 session is still in progress and the Record, of course, is not complete than half of his tenure in Congress, Tower personally or with with one or two other sponsors introduced and passed nine bills through both houses of Congress. 1966 S. 3500 Authorizing retirement in grade of lieutenant general for Robert W. Colglazier. 1967 S. 1400 Prohibiting transpor tation of traveler’s checks with forged countersignatures. S. 1652 For relief of Anastasia D. Mpatzian. 1968 NONE ing amateur radio licenses to certain resident aliens. 1970 NONE 1971 S.2781 \(with Amending the National Housing Act. S. 1151 Revising contract with San Angelo Water Supply Corp. ing cooperation with Central American governments in control of communicable animal diseases. S. 1647 \(included in Revenue cent investment tax credit. consent to Congress to consider land acquired as a result of the Chami= zal treaty with Mexico as part of Texas. Tower cosponsored hundreds of other bills, and the Observer has no way of judging how much work he did on bills he signed his name to. A cosponsor may do significant work getting a piece of legislation passed or he may simply sign a bill as an after-thought. In Tower’s Senate newsletter, T Comments, he provides a Senate floor report. The introduction to the report usually says, “Since my last newsletter, I have sponsored additional measures in the Senate and some which I sponsored earlier have made progress.” The measures are listed as “signed into law,” “passed by the Congress,” “passed by the Senate,” “new bills introduced,” etc. The list looks impressive but it is often misleading. Take, for example, the February, 1972, report: “Bills signed into law: S. 1116 \(with Senator Jackson, now Congressional Record Index nor “Topical Law Report” of Commerce Clearing House, Inc., lists Tower as a sponsor of S. 1116. The primary sponsors are Jackson and Hatfield. Also listed in the February report is S. 582 “to establish a national policy and develop a national program for management . . . of land and water resources of the nation’s coastal and estaurine zones.” The report states that Tower sponsored the bill along with Senator Hollings, but the Topical Law Report lists the top 26 sponsors and Tower is not among them. Nor does the Topical Law Report indicate that Tower is among the top 16 sponsors of Senator Percy’s bill to establish a Special Action office of Drug Prevention. Percy’s bill is included in Tower’s list. So is Senator Buckley’s S. 2944, amending the IRS Code pertaining to prisoners of war. Tower is one of 44 cosponsors of the bill. There are numerous other cases of the scribbles in Tower’s floor reports. IT IS EASY to claim credit for a bill. In a news release issued from his Austin campaign headquarters and dated Sept. 29, 1972, Tower is quoted as saying he was the “original author of the 1967 bilingual education bill.” The bill generally is considered one of the major achievements of former Sen. Ralph Yarborough. RY told the Observer that October 20, 1972 3