Whatever else the new Republican majority in the 104th Congress accomplishes, stripping the House committee structure of irrelevant appendages ranks among the most valuable. Over the past 30 years, Congress has become bloated: too many employees, too many frills, too many parasites. Even the galvanized Republicans under Rep. Newt Gingrich have only chipped away at what needs to be done on Capitol Hill, but it is a good start.
The retiring House of Representatives had too many committees and subcommittees. The incoming House will, too, but not as many. Not since Washington gained a large measure of home rule 20 years ago has there been a need for a committee overseeing its local government. Similarly, the Post Office and Civil Service Committee and Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee have become anachronisms, bereft of much to legislate about.
Maybe the Democrats would have gotten around in time to these long-needed reforms, but we wouldn't bet on it. The power brokers are too deeply entrenched in its leadership. Only an upheaval like November's electoral revolution, and the coming elevation to the speakership of a zealot like Mr. Gingrich, made the reforms possible. Even so, a true reform would have abolished more committees such as Small Business and Veterans Affairs.
More controversial, but no less justified, is the move to cut off public money for the entrenched special interests known as legislative caucuses. Some of them espouse causes that this newspaper ardently supports. But they, no less than the groups we oppose, have no business using public money to fight their battles. That is what the legislative caucuses were all about: advancing the interests of particular industries, or regions, or social causes or segments of the population. They contributed mightily to congressional tunnel vision.
Causes closely associated with the liberal wing of the Democratic Party will suffer -- which surely pleases the intensely partisan Mr. Gingrich. Still, the African-American, Hispanic and women members of the House are not stripped of all resources. The funds they contributed from their expense accounts to pay for caucus staffs and research can be used for similar purposes within their own offices. The Republicans are accustomed to lean and mean staffs, and look where it got them.