Dingell Voted Out, Waxman to Head Committee

Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) won the vote to displace Representative John Dingell (D-MI) as chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Waxman won the 137-122 vote to take over the leadership role that Dingelll held sine 1981. Waxman told reporters after the vote: "Seniority is important, but it should not be a grant of property rights to be chairman for three decades or more." The committee rules on health care, energy and telecommunications, all key issues for the incoming Obama administration. Nancy Pelosi named Dingell "chairman emeritus", which, as the Washington Post puts it: "is an undefined title".

Dingell has been instrumental in protecting the auto industry from higher fuel economy while couching his reasons for doing so in the same terms that the auto industry and its lobbies use. As we wrote in "Congress on CAFE: Detroit misled us", Dingell said last summer about the American consumer's car tastes: "He likes it sitting in his driveway, he likes it big, he likes it safe". The American consumer at that time was clamoring for more fuel efficient vehicles. His wife was a senior executive at GM and her family started the company.

Representative Dingell was also overseeing FDA issues. Dingell and another Michigan Democrat, Representative Bart Stupak were taking the FDA to task over their handling of bisphenol A, and vetting the potential conflict of interest of Martin Philbert. Philbert is a University of Michigan researcher who heads a Risk Center that is largely supported by a private grants from a retired manufacturer who thinks BPA is being maligned by "mothers' groups and others who don't know the science."

Dingell fought to keep his position, emphasizing his work on the FDA issues. Indeed a flurry of recent communication from the House Energy and Commerce Committee underlined the committee's work in this area. Dingell and Stupak said yesterday that they would review "compelling evidence" that the FDA approved some medical devices despite safety concerns. They released an October 14th letter by FDA agency employees who said their managers "ordered, intimidated and coerced FDA experts to modify their scientific reviews", in order to release medical devices despite safety concerns. The October 14th letter described "corruption, illegality, gross mismanagement and retaliation at the hands of FDA managers."

While Dingell might have released the letter to emphasize the important work his committee is doing, FDA employees also have an interest in airing their grievances now, while change is in the air.