Gramm Chairs Senate Commerce Appropriations Subcommittee

Appropriators are some of the most powerful Members of Congress because they control the purse strings of federal programs. In the 104th Congress, Senator Phil Gramm of Texas chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State, and Judiciary. This subcommittee funds, among other programs, the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology. Gramm replaces Senator Ernest Hollings of South Carolina as subcommittee chairman.

Subcommittee Roster:

In addition to being an aspiring presidential candidate, Gramm made a name for himself as a co-sponsor of the Gramm-Rudman anti-deficit law in 1985 and a long-time advocate of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. Gramm began his congressional service in 1979 in the House, as a Democrat. He switched to the Republican party in 1983, largely due to conservative fiscal leanings, and was elected to the Senate in 1984. In addition to chairing the commerce appropriations subcommittee, he also serves on the VA/HUD appropriations subcommittee, and the Senate Budget and Banking Committees.

Gramm has not been averse to channeling funds to his state. He has consistently supported the space station, while opposing drastic redesigns. Johnson Space Center, a major player in the station’s construction, is located in Houston. Gramm also supported the ill-fated SSC, which was to be built in Waxahachie, Texas.

Gramm proved an active opponent of President Clinton’s budget policies in the last Congress. An analysis of his 1993 voting record shows that he voted with the Republican party 94 percent of the time, with the President only 21 percent of the time, and received a conservative coalition ranking of 93 percent. (This ranking, determined by “Congressional Quarterly” magazine, measures how often a Member voted with a majority of Republicans and Southern Democrats against a majority of all other Democrats.)

The following remarks made by Gramm in 1993 give some indication of his viewpoint on science funding. Noting that NSF suffers from the lack of a clear constituency, he cautioned that, given scarce resources, NSF “was not as appealing politically” as other issues in the 1994 election. However, on possible cuts in NASA space science missions, Gramm warned that it was important “to let Members of Congress know that cuts have consequences.”