The New Money Man for NSF and NASA: James T. Walsh

Rep. James T. Walsh has become one of the most important people in Washington for the National Science Foundation and NASA. As the newly named chairman of the House VA, HUD, Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, Walsh will be one of a select group of individuals with direct control over NSF and NASA budgets.

Walsh is a fairly moderate conservative representing central New York, from Lake Ontario to near Pennsylvania. The Republican was born in 1947, and has a B.A. in history. Before coming to Washington in 1988, Walsh was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal, a social services case worker, a telephone company executive, the director of the Telecommunication Institute at SUNY at Utica-Rome, and president of the Syracuse, NY City Council.

This will be the third appropriations subcommittee the congressman has chaired. His previous subcommittees had difficult, and largely thankless, jurisdictions. Walsh’s first appropriations subcommittee handled the District of Columbia, the second, the Legislative branch. During this last assignment he overrode the objections of conservatives who wanted to freeze the legislative budget, and pushed through a small increase.

While no one would mistake Walsh for a liberal (he now serves as an Assistant Majority Whip), he seems to chart his own course. He was only one of three Republicans in 1993 to vote for President Clinton’s economic stimulus plan, supported the family and medical leave act, the “motor voter” bill, and the controversial National Endowment for the Arts. Last fall, Walsh made suggestions on how Speaker Newt Gingrich should change his leadership style. Walsh spoke with obvious pride about the bipartisan cooperation there was in crafting the legislative appropriations bill. He said in 1994, “I run with the Republican designation, and I think I’m as good a Republican as anybody down here. But I’m not afraid to be independent.” Last month, Walsh was reelected with about 69% of the vote.

Walsh’s record indicates that he should be friendly toward science and technology. Going back to 1995, he voted against a proposal to take money from NSF and NASA to give to VA Medical Care (defeated by a bipartisan vote of 121-296.) In 1996, Walsh signed a letter supporting full-year funding for the NSF. He favors the space station, but changed from supporting the SSC to opposing it in 1993. A search of past FYIs for comments Walsh made during VA, HUD hearings found that he raised a cautionary note in 1996 about the pressure entitlement spending puts on discretionary programs.

In the present Congress, Walsh sponsored eight bills, none of which have a direct science link. He cosponsored 245 bills, on subjects including Lupus and Parkinson’s research, nuclear waste, National Sea Grant College reauthorization, and a prohibition on national educational testing.

Members join congressional caucuses because they have interest in areas beyond their committee assignments. Walsh belongs to several caucuses in technical areas: alcohol fuels, automotive, biomedical research, and competitiveness.

Walsh’s district is both urban and rural. Syracuse is the largest city, followed by Cortland and Auburn. The three largest universities or colleges are Syracuse University, Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, and the State University of New York at Cortland. The six largest employers are involved with technology-driven products or higher education: Carrier Corporation (refrigeration and heating equipment), Syracuse University, and Lockheed Martin Corporation’s Ocean, Radar and Sensor Systems.

It will not be known for another few months what changes Walsh will bring to the VA/HUD subcommittee. His job should be easier because the new Speaker, Bob Livingston (R-LA), opposes attempts to affect policy changes through the appropriations process. Livingston will have a keen interest in “making the trains run on time” to avoid the pile-up of appropriations bills that marked the close of this last Congress, which Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-MS) also expressed an interest in this week. Historically, NSF and NASA have had consistently high levels of support by both Republicans and Democrats on the subcommittee.

When Walsh brought his legislative branch appropriations bill to the House floor this year he introduced it with the below comments. Perhaps some of these words indicate the direction he will take in his new position next year as the chairman of the House VA, HUD, Independent Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee:

“Mr Chairman, I think that people would expect us to lead by our example in this government downsizing, right sizing, and I think that we have done that. I think that this budget, the Legislative Branch budget, has done more to show leadership in reducing the size of government, making it more effective, everyone is working faster and smarter and harder, so I think this is a real tribute to the efforts and it has been tough. It has been very difficult to get those numbers down. Because we are talking about people and we are talking about service to people.”