WASHINGTON — Even if Republicans retain their slim majority in the U.S. House this election year, a mammoth game of musical chairs among committee chairmen is about to begin.
And it should make Rep. Jim Hansen, R-Utah, the chairman of the full House Resources Committee — and the top overseer of issues ranging from Utah wilderness to public-lands management.
The scrambling comes because in 1995 as the GOP took over the House, they limited chairmanships of committees and subcommittees to six years. It was part of their "Contract With America."
Republicans said that would bring a rotation of fresh blood to party leadership and prevent chairmen from creating long-term fiefdoms.
Those six years are up next year for many powerful chairmen, and the scramble for their seats is on. Many chairmen are also trying to make lateral moves to chair other committees.
Hansen should take over at Resources — as long as he wins re-election, the Republicans hold their majority and upcoming musical chairs play out the way generally expected.
But the game of musical chairmanships is complicated and full of pitfalls for Hansen, so read on slowly and carefully to understand it.
First, bear in mind that, usually, the member of the majority party who has served longest on a committee becomes its chairman — but members of party caucuses in rare instances do elect someone else.
So as a current chairman steps down because of term limits, the second-ranking Republican would normally become the new chairman.
The current chairman of the Resources Committee, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, must step down because of the six-year limit.
He plans to musical-chair his way to chairmanship of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where he is now its second-ranking Republican. In turn, its current chairman, Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., also is hitting his six-year limit and may take over a key subcommittee there.
After Young, the next highest-ranking Republican on the Resources Committee is Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La. But Tauzin is also the second-ranking Republican on the Commerce Committee — and he would rather chair it. So Hansen, who ranks third on Resources, would therefore likely take over Resources.
However, trouble comes because Tauzin is being challenged for the Commerce chairmanship — being vacated by retiring Rep. Thomas Bliley, R-Va. Both the third-ranking Republican, Rep. Michael Oxley of Ohio, and the fifth-ranking Republican, Joe L. Barton of Texas, say they would like to chair the committee.
Tauzin and Oxley have been busy fund-raising for other members — and formed their own political action committees to help — in hopes to build support in their race for the Commerce chairmanship.
Hansen, no doubt, is rooting for members to follow tradition and vote for Tauzin to win. Because if Tauzin loses that fight, he would almost surely chair Resources instead and bump Hansen out of a full committee chairmanship.
Hansen, meanwhile, would also hit the six-year limit on chairing the Resources Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands — and would have to give that up. He could take another Resources subcommittee, but the National Parks subcommittee is his favorite.
Hansen could also instead seek to chair a subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee — where he ranks fifth among Republicans expected to return next year. (Three Republicans, including one with less seniority than Hansen there, are expected to fight for its overall chairmanship).
Hansen, however, would much rather chair a full committee than a subcommittee. It would make him part of the inner circle of top House leaders who plan party strategy. It would bring more prestige and more attention.
So as everyone heads for a chair, look for Hansen to be blocking and pushing to clear the way for Tauzin to take over at Commerce — so Hansen can more take over at Resources.
But as in real musical chairs games, it's not easy to know what will happen until the dust clears. Hansen could be sitting pretty or left out of all the full chairmanships.
Deseret News Washington correspondent Lee Davidson can be reached by e-mail at leed@dgs.dgsys.com