Wynn's delayed departure raises concerns about role on Energy and Commerce panel

2 Apr 2008 // Senior Energy and Commerce Committee member Al Wynn's (D-Md.) decision to leave Congress this summer for a law firm has raised questions about how the lawmaker will serve out his tenure on Capitol Hill.

One Democratic leader suggested yesterday that Wynn may need to excuse himself from much of the committee's work, and members are already lining up to succeed Wynn as chairman of the Environment and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee.

Though several lawmakers have left the House in midsession in recent years, Wynn took the relatively unusual step of saying he was leaving in June for a specific job in the private sector. Wynn will be joining the Washington office of the firm Dickstein Shapiro LLP, which represents a slew of corporate clients, including electric utilities, financial service corporations and other Fortune 500 companies.

Some of those companies could be affected by legislation that comes from the Energy and Commerce Committee -- most notably the electric utilities that will have a major stake in the climate change bill that could come before the panel later this year.

As a moderate Democrat who at times has voted with the energy industry, Wynn represents a potentially key vote on climate change and other energy matters. Still, at this point, it is unclear as to whether Wynn will even decide to participate in the climate change and other debates in the short time he has left on Capitol Hill.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) suggested yesterday that Wynn may need to not only recuse himself from voting and crafting legislation relating to corporate interests for which he will eventually work but also leave the Energy and Commerce Committee altogether.

"I think it is absolutely essential that he does recuse himself, and I am not sure what he is going to do on the committee," Hoyer told reporters. "There may be some thought that we need to have a full-voting committee member who does not need to recuse himself on issues, and therefore ... Mr. Wynn may decide to step down from the committee prior to leaving."

Environment and Hazardous Materials panel
Wynn's resignation leaves unanswered questions about the fate of the Environment and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee that he chairs. Environmentalists have said that the subcommittee has not been as active as they would have liked, holding six hearings over the 15 months that Democrats have been in control of Congress.

With Wynn leaving Congress in a matter of months and no clear successor in sight, it appears unlikely that the subcommittee will take any substantial action in what is left of the 110th Congress.

Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) said yesterday that he will be throwing his hat in the ring for Wynn's chairmanship. "I will exercise my seniority on the committee," he said. "I'm next in line to be chair."

Green said he will seek leadership of the subcommittee because there are a variety of clean water issues in his district in East Texas and because U.S. EPA recently created a new Superfund site on the border of the congressional seat.

According to other House sources, Reps. Hilda Solis (D-Calif.) and Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) are also interested in pursuing chairmanship of the subcommittee when Wynn steps down. Green acknowledged he has spoken with both about the position but did not elaborate.

Solis was ranking member on the subcommittee in the 109th Congress, but Wynn stepped in shortly after the November 2006 election to secure the leadership position. Solis, a well-known environmental health advocate, has worked on numerous bills related to hazardous materials.

DeGette is vice-chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and chief deputy whip for the House Democrats. Her central Colorado district includes the former Rocky Flats nuclear plant, which is being converted into a wildlife refuge.

What does recusal actually mean?
Wynn's decision to leave Congress six weeks after losing the Democratic primary to activist Donna Edwards came as something of a surprise even to senior Democrats.

Asked by reporters whether he would have liked to see Wynn serve out his term before moving to the private sector, Hoyer admitted that he had no prior knowledge of Wynn's plans to leave the House.

"Whether I would have liked that or not, he did not discuss that with me," Hoyer said. "He did call me and tell me what he was doing. I suppose I acknowledged it, I guess, the day he announced it or a little before that, but he didn't discuss it with me."

For his part, Wynn's office said he has already signed the recusal forms and will comply with the standards outlined under the House rules.

"I have spoken with the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct and have fully complied with all requirements to date by filing the appropriate paperwork and will abide by all recusal requirements, if any, in the future," Wynn said in a statement.

The House recusal rules, however, are somewhat murky and at no point do they specifically define what recusal entails. Rules adopted at the start of the 110th Congress say only that a lawmaker "shall recuse himself or herself from any matter in which there is a conflict of interest or an appearance of a conflict."

A spokeswoman for House Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.) said that Dingell and Wynn are discussing the matter privately but "ultimately it is Wynn's decision about when to leave and whether to recuse himself."

Wynn's pledge of recusal appears to have done little to assuage watchdog groups about what they see as an inherent conflict of interest between the lawmaker's current duties and his work for future employers.

"There is nothing that Representative Wynn can do to avoid conflicts of interest. He should resign, immediately," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.