Sen. Enzi on "No Child" Reauthorization

[Bob Schaeffer <bobschaeffer@earthlink.net>]

ENZI ADHERES TO "80/20 RULE"
The Politico -- February 13, 2008
by Daniel W. Reilly

“On some of these issues, people have been waiting ... 15 years [for 
Congress to act], and people have got nothing. People are willing to 
take 80 percent.” No issue will test the power of Enzi’s 80/20 rule like 
the controversial reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind law, which 
expired at the end of 2007 but has been extended automatically through 
the end of this year. The law has drawn fire from an array of lawmakers 
and education advocates, and its prospects appear dim in 2008. Enzi 
isn’t ready to give up, however. “I am the ultimate optimist, so, yes, I 
think we are going to get a law this year,” he said. “I have been 
pleased with the meetings that Sen. Kennedy and I have had on it.”
<>As the Senate’s only certified public accountant, Sen. Michael B. Enzi 
(R-Wyo.) knows the importance of numbers.

And as the top Republican on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and 
Pensions Committee, Enzi tries to adhere to what he calls the “80/20 
rule” as he negotiates compromises with committee Chairman Edward M. 
Kennedy (D-Mass.) on contentious issues such as children’s health care, 
student loans and the controversial No Child Left Behind law.

Enzi said that he and Kennedy “agree on 80 percent of the issues” and 
try to work within that area, rather than arguing over the 20 percent on 
which they don’t. The key to moving legislation, Enzi says, “isn’t what 
you compromise on; it’s what you leave out.”

In an era of bitter partisanship, with both parties loath to give the 
other any legislative victories, Enzi says the 80/20 rule helped the 
committee move some key education measures in 2007, even if they weren’t 
exactly as Enzi would have wanted them

Still, Enzi knows that NCLB represents an uphill battle, with many 
Democrats arguing the legislation places too much emphasis on 
standardized testing and many Republicans contending that exams are the 
only way to bring true accountability to the school system.

Accountability “means one thing to one person and a whole other thing to 
another,” Enzi said, but he added that discussions on the law are 
“getting very specific and adding some things that the teachers like,” 
such as growth measurements that would assess the performance of 
teachers over several years.

A former shoe store owner, Enzi has also fought hard to allow 
small-business owners to pool together and form associations to reduce 
health care costs. While the measure has been dormant for years, a 
bipartisan group of senators has begun a series of behind-the-scenes 
talks to try to revive it.

Up for reelection this year, Enzi has delayed making a decision on 
whether to run again. Relatively sluggish fundraising totals — coupled 
with a blowup at GOP leaders after he was passed up for a coveted seat 
on the Senate Finance Committee that, by seniority, should have been his 
— have fueled rumors that he will step down. Enzi, however, insists that 
no decision has been made.

“When I make an announcement, I will make it in Wyoming,” he said.

Jim King, professor of political science at the University of Wyoming, 
said that Enzi “hasn’t tipped his hand either way” but cautioned that 
Wyoming has “a tradition of late announcements, so this is not all that 
out of the ordinary.” King also noted that Enzi is not expected to face 
any serious opposition, which he said may explain Enzi’s rather meager 
fundraising totals.

If he does return to the Senate in 2009, there will be plenty of 
unfinished business on the HELP committee, from the NCLB reauthorization 
— assuming it doesn’t get done this year — to a bill introduced by 
Kennedy to give the Food and Drug Administration new powers to regulate 
tobacco products.

Although strongly anti-smoking, Enzi does not support the bill, in part 
because it has the support of the tobacco industry, which Enzi 
distrusts. “I got to watch two of my moms die from smoking,” he told The 
Washington Times in January, referring to his mother and his mother-in-law.

While the HELP committee is home to some of the most divisive issues 
debated in Congress, Enzi remains committed to forging compromise with 
Democrats using his 80/20 rule, even in this era of intense 
partisanship. “The people really expect us to get things done,” he said. 
“And we will keep working till we figure it out.”

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8501.html