Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans

McDermott set to take over as caucus co-chair

by Aziz Haniffa
India Abroad
November 24, 2000

Come Dec. 5, Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington, one of the most experienced and knowledgeable lawmakers of South Asian affairs on Capitol Hill, will take over as the Democratic co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, which now has more than 120 members.

The outgoing Democratic cochairman, Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York, who wrote the bylaw that the tenure of the India Caucus co-chairpersons shall not exceed two years, has rescheduled a meeting slated for Nov. 16 to Dec. 5, to hand over the reins of leadership to McDermott. Congressional sources said the meeting was postponed to Dec. 5 because of a Congressional recess.

McDermott, a physician by training, has visited India more than 13 times since the late 1980s, when his interest in the burgeoning incidence of AIDS in Asia and Africa took him to the red light districts of Mumbai and Calcutta, where he feared the dread disease would strike with a vengeance.

McDermott's aides said the lawmaker and Ed Royce, the Republican co-chair of the caucus, would work well together as they enjoyed a "good relationship."

Senior aides to McDermott told India Abroad that the lawmaker was "extremely excited" about taking over the leadership of the caucus and had already mapped out his "strategy and agenda" as to where he hopes to take it during his tenure.

Meanwhile, as expected, Rep. Ed Royce of California was unanimously elected Republican cochairman of the caucus, replacing Rep. James Greenwood of Pennsylvania.

However, since the membership of the caucus, founded by Rep. Frank Pallone, New Jersey Democrat, is nearly 90 percent Democrat, it is the Democratic CO-chairpersons who have traditionally called the shots and the Republican CO-chairpersons have been largely ceremonial. Often, over the years, particularly during the formative period, there were situations where the GOP CO-chairpersons did not even know where the caucus meetings were being held, because this group -- which is today the largest of its kind in Congress -- was dominated by the Democratic co-chairperson and his special assistant.

However, McDermott's aides said this time around it is going to be radically different. They said McDermott and Royce "have a very good relationship -- they went to India together (accompanying United States President Bill Clinton in March). They also have had a long relationship on Africa," since Royce was the chairman of the Africa Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee and McDermott, because of his interest in the AIDS epidemic in Africa, often worked in unison.

"So, hopefully, it (the relationship) will be good," a senior aide to McDermott said. "We've talked with their people and, apparently, Ed Royce is very excited to work with Jim." He hoped it would be a "working relationship and not a case of one person dominating the other person."

Royce himself has made it clear that he will be no figurehead and intends to play an active and policy-making role in the caucus.

In a statement released by his office on his election as Republican cochairman, Royce said: "It is vital that our two countries continue growing closer. India is important to the U.S. in many ways -- politically, economically and strategically. A strong relationship will benefit both countries." He said that as the new cochairman of the India Caucus he would work to strengthen that relationship and see to it that the momentum created by Clinton's visit to India and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's trip to the U.S. was kept going.

Emphasizing that the importance of the U.S.-India alliance was growing each year, he said: "India is the world's largest democracy, it's a growing market for American goods and services, and it's living in a very threatening security environment. It's important that the U.S. be engaged with India in a very significant way." He also said he would push for a more aggressive U.S.-India trade partnership, which, he felt, had "great potential."

"The India Caucus had become one of the most effective caucuses on Capitol Hill. Outgoing cochairman Jim Greenwood has much to be proud of," Royce noted, adding that he would work hard to see that Congress was a "full player in the dramatically improving relationship between the U.S. and India."

McDermott's aides said that while the lawmaker would endeavor to maintain the focus on the growing relationship between Washington and New Delhi, "we want to take things in a different direction and the first thing is, we want to do a lot more on domestic issues," which were of interest and concern to the Indian-American community. This would include immigration, philanthropy, health care, Medicare and H-1B visas.

They said McDermott would also convene, not hearings as in the past, but briefings "where we will have some experts and put them up on a panel and they can say their piece and be open to questions."

These briefings would be similar to the "very successful healthcare briefings" convened by Rep. Sherrod Brown, Ohio Democrat, who headed the Health Care Task Force of the caucus, and is expected to do the same for the next two years, by when he will be the front-runner to take over as Democratic cochairman