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 Editorials | At Issue | September 2006 
PAN, PRI Team Up Against PRD
 Kelly Arthur Garrett - El Universal
Legislators allied with President-elect Felipe Calderón teamed up Friday with the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) leadership in the Chamber of Deputies to freeze the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) out of all three of the key purse-string committee chairmanships in the lower house of Congress.
In what may be a preview of future horse trading between the PRI and the ruling National Action Party (PAN), the two parties´ coordinators agreed on a plan that gives the PRI control of 11 committees, the same number as the PRD, though the latter has a larger representation in the Chamber.
The biggest plum for the PRI, however, is the leadership of the Finance Committee (Hacienda), which controls the income side of the federal budget. The PRD, the second force in Congress behind the PAN, had demanded the Budget Committee, but instead was relegated to the Vigilance Committee, an oversight body that has been notably ineffective throughout the Fox administration.
The PAN will head the two other principle fiscal committees - the Budget Committee and the Economy Committee.
The Chamber committees are large - 26 to 30 members - with each party claiming membership based on the percentage of its representation in the Chamber. But the chair, called the committee president, has a disproportionate share of the power, controlling information, agendas and inter-committee communication.
Heading the Finance Commission will be the PRI´s Charbel Jorge Estefan Chidiac, from Puebla. The PRD objected to the choice, claiming that Estefan Chidiac is close to Puebla Gov. Mario Marín, the "Gober Precioso" who is being investigated by the Supreme Court for possible involvement in harassing journalist Lydia Cacho.
More to the point, though, Estefan Chidiac has served in the Fox administration, as a Cabinet subsecretary and a regional director of the social security (IMSS) system.
With the PAN controlling two fiscal committees, a PAN-friendly PRI member in charge of the third, and the PRD moved aside, Calderón´s fiscal reform proposals may find easier sailing than they would have if the committee presidencies had been assigned on strictly proportional grounds.
Though agreement on 39 of the 43 committee presidencies was unanimous, the PRD objected to the assignments that the PRI and PAN arranged for the Economy, Budget and Finance Committees, and demanded a floor debate before formal adoption. That debate was continuing Friday evening.
The PAN, which could have claimed 18 committee chairs, settled for 16 as part of its agreement with the PRI. The other five chairs (43 regular committees in all) went to minor parties.
Meanwhile, the Senate is going through a similar process in the assigning of presidencies of its 54 committees. However, PAN Senate leader Santiago Creel said Friday his party would not strike a similar deal with the PRI in exclusion of the PRD. |
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