WASHINGTON -- They wear lapel pins calling themselves "majority makers" because they gave the Republicans control of Congress for the first time in two generations. But the GOP FTC freshmen headed to Baltimore today for a three-day retreat are seeking a greater distinction: to be remembered as a Congress that actually delivered what it promised.
They're trying to cut their own staffs, limit their own power, and sell off congressional real estate. They're not only determined to meet their campaign commitments to act within 100 days on the sweeping GOP "Contract with America," they want to move even faster and farther to remake government than the contract requires. As they figure it, they have so much to prove to a skeptical American public, and so little time.
"We're serious as a heart attack," Rep.-elect James B. Longley of Maine said this week before he rushed off in search of a photograph of the House office building that the freshmen want to sell. "We're here to do a job."
Most of the House GOP freshmen and several of 11 new Republican senators will attend the three days of policy seminars at the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore Hotel as part of an orientation session sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative, Washington-based think tank.
The session has replaced a similar program run for years by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, which held less appeal for Republican lawmakers because it did not deal with the nuts and bolts of translating their agenda into law.
The retreat follows three days of party meetings with their veteran Republican colleagues, during which the 73 House freshmen advanced their own agenda for internal congressional reforms.
Their most striking achievement was the elimination of staff and budgets for 28 special-interest caucuses at an estimated annual savings of some $5 million. Though many of the larger groups affected -- the black caucus, the Hispanic caucus, and the women's caucus -- advance mainly Democratic causes, some of the newcomers' fellow Republicans also had second thoughts. Their arguments fell on deaf ears.
"I proposed that the one caucus to be spared should be the Human Rights Caucus because it actually saves lives," said Rep. Robert K. Dornan of California. "But they actually hooted me down. I said to myself, 'Whoa! these people mean to get something done.' "
The Republican freshmen say they are motivated and even haunted by the bad example set by many of their predecessors -- notably the 63 Democratic freshmen elected in 1992, many of whom also ran as reformers but failed to make much headway. Sixteen of the new Republicans won seats from Democratic freshmen whose constituents had become disenchanted.
"The voters told all of us: 'Make sure you keep your promises, and don't let those people in Congress change you,' " said Rep.-elect Randy Tate of Washington state.
In sharp contrast to their predecessors, nearly half the House freshmen -- who also include 13 Democrats -- have never held public office. They are bankers, lawyers, accountants, Realtors, business people and academics, many of them elected with little or no party support, who ran because they just got fed up with Congress.
Joe Scarborough, a Pensacola, Fla., lawyer who helped drive eight-term Democratic Rep. Earl Hutto out of the race for his seat, describes himself as one of many "who just fell off the couch" and into politics.
"I decided to run when Hutto voted for Clinton's tax increase bill last year after everybody in the district told him not to," Mr. Scarborough said. "But when I got here, two things surprised me: how young everybody was -- at 31, I looked around and saw a lot of my peers -- and second: This is not a group of people from the political class. You hear stories like mine again and again."
All pledged during their campaigns to back the "Contract with America" developed by the House GOP leadership, which calls for quick action on, among other things, term limits, a balanced budget amendment, welfare reform and middle-class tax cuts.
But the first order of business for freshmen this week was proving their colors on the internal congressional reforms that take effect when the 104th Congress formally convenes Jan. 4. In accordance with the contract, the freshmen voted to limit committee and subcommittee chairmen to three terms, cut committee staff by one-third and eliminate three committees entirely.
They wanted to move so much further, though, that they made some veterans nervous. A freshman proposal to cut the personal staffs of House members by two positions was rejected by voice vote after heated debate. Another freshmen proposal to ban the mailing of congressional newsletters at taxpayer expense during election years was pulled from the agenda.
Rep.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. of Baltimore County, Maryland's freshman Republican, said he thinks the newsletter proposal was pulled after his colleagues were advised by senior members to hold off until they got a better feel for how the place works.
"I agree with that," said Mr. Ehrlich, a veteran of the state legislature who opposed the proposal to cut staff positions. "I don't see how you can make a decision like that until you get in office and find out what you need. Voters may want staff cuts, but they also want their mail answered and their Social Security check found."
Many of the Republican freshmen have not entirely forsaken the old ways of Washington. The most sought-after committee assignment is Energy and Commerce, well-known as one of the richest sources of campaign contributions from lobbyists eager to curry favor.