Speier's first weeks a whirlwind

By Will Oremus  |  San Mateo County Times  |  Link to article

Jackie Speier's 58th birthday was memorable, not for any celebration or family gathering but for how it underscored the new world she has entered as a rookie congresswoman.

After a long day in the Capitol, including an important roll-call vote on the farm bill, she finished work at about 8 p.m. and headed back to her apartment alone.

"I got back to my apartment, put on my pajamas, ate a bowl of soup and watched CNN,'' Speier recalled. Laughing, she added, "This is not a glamorous job.''

Perhaps not, but that isn't stopping the newly elected Democrat from Hillsborough from throwing herself into it. In her first six weeks in office, she has made headlines with controversial comments about the Iraq war, proposed legislation regulating pharmaceutical imports, confronted anguishing choices on floor votes and begun assembling ideas for bills on consumer protection.

And each weekend, she flies back home to the district to be with her family. Unlike her predecessor, the late Tom Lantos, Speier said she does not intend to move to the Washington, D.C., area.

"When that happens, there is a mind-shift," she said, "and I don't want that mind-shift to take place. I love this area. I love the people. I love the people coming up and stopping me in the stores to talk to me."

On Tuesday, Speier discussed what she's been up to so far and what she has in mind for the future. Despite her 18 years of experience in the state Legislature, she is finding that a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives comes with its own steep learning curve.

"It's like drinking from a fire hose," Speier said.

She started her tenure in Congress with a bang that set Republicans booing and scurrying for the exits. In her remarks to the House chamber after being sworn in, she took a swipe at likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain and called for U.S. troops to come home from Iraq immediately.

She took a humbler path when faced with a vote on the farm bill earlier this month.

Championed by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, the $300 billion bill has taken heat from environmentalists and fiscal conservatives alike for its heavy subsidies. Speier admitted she disliked major aspects of it, but she fell in line with her party's leadership and voted for it anyway.

"I regret that vote now," she said. "You cannot defend the kind of subsidies we are providing to agribusiness. But to be on board for three or four weeks and buck your entire party before you've even been assigned to a committee."

As it turned out, Speier didn't get her top-choice assignment, the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce. She had hoped to use the post to push for regulations on pharmaceutical companies.

Speier said she had in mind a law requiring that all imported drugs be labeled with their country of origin, but she found out the committee chair already had such legislation in the works.

Instead, she was named last week along with two other brand-new Democrats to the House Committee on Financial Services. In the wake of the news, Speier said she is "shifting gears" to focus on consumer protection and financial privacy — issues she was known for in the California Legislature.

Her goal in the committee, Speier said, is to "upload all the bills I had signed into law in California" to the national stage. Those include the landmark California Financial Information Privacy Act, the toughest of its kind in the nation when she authored it in 2003.

"Financial privacy is something that should be a right for everyone," not just Californians, Speier said.

She'd also like to someday see a national consumer financial services commission. It would be similar in concept to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but for things such as subprime mortgages instead of coffee makers.

Meanwhile, Speier has been seeking advice from the Congressional Research Service on how to tackle the issue of legislative earmarks, which she views as a corrupting influence in Congress.

So far, she has allowed local earmarks pushed by Lantos to move forward. But Speier said she hasn't sought any of her own and won't entertain lobbyists' requests.

"I've put everyone on notice," Speier said, "it's not going to be business as usual on my watch."