With Hutchison gone, money for Texas may be, too

Texas lost the leader of its bipartisan effort to land federal dollars when Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison retired. Texas lost the leader of its bipartisan effort to land federal dollars when Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison retired. Photo: Associated Press File Photo Photo: Associated Press File Photo Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close With Hutchison gone, money for Texas may be, too 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

For nearly two decades, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison delivered thousands of federal projects to Texas that added billions of dollars to the state's economy.

The leader of a bipartisan approach known as “Team Texas,” Hutchison worked with Democrats and Republicans to send federal dollars to Texas, even if it occasionally got her in trouble with spending hawks in her party.

Now, in Hutchison's absence, Texans in Washington are struggling to come up with a unified strategy to return Texas taxpayers' dollars to the Lone Star State.

“On appropriations, she was just relentless,” said Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston. “We're certainly going to miss her. We haven't seen the full impact of Sen. Hutchison's departure.”

Complicating matters for Texas is that Hutchison, a specialist in back-room negotiations and bipartisan relationship-building, was replaced by Ted Cruz, a hard-charging partisan who has focused primarily on high-profile national issues such as guns, abortion and health care.

He also has vowed to balance the federal budget by cutting government spending, even in his home state.

“The departure of Sen. Hutchison, the ascendancy of Cruz as a national leader and the current budget crunch all combine to form a perfect storm that will result in less money coming back to Texas for the foreseeable future,” said Matt Mackowiak, a Republican political strategist and former aide to Hutchison.

Members of the congressional delegation, business leaders and Texas academics say the most endangered projects include federal spending on education, health care and transportation, in which the end of earmarks has shifted decision-making power over spending to officials of the Obama administration.

“Texas conservatives, in both the House and Senate, seem not to realize that you cannot both be the core of the opposition to administration programs and the frequent beneficiary of administration largesse,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University.

Without Hutchison leading Team Texas, the state's 38-member congressional delegation has adopted several survival strategies.

Among them:

• The state's four members of the House Appropriations Committee, Culberson, John Carter, R-Round Rock, Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, and Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, are working to protect Texas projects in the House. Culberson, as chairman of the Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, is particularly important to his home state.

• Reps. Ralph Hall, 89, and Sam Johnson, 82, are the oldest members of the Texas delegation, but they are well liked across party lines and carry clout in GOP circles. Johnson is a senior member of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, in which he can aid the state's energy, research and technology sectors.

• There are seven Texans on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, including its chairman, Republican Lamar Smith of San Antonio, and its top Democrat, Eddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas. With $39 billion in agency budgets under their watch, the Texans are committed to protecting Texas interests including the Johnson Space Center, the Texas Medical Center and high-tech research from Cyber City USA in San Antonio to Austin's Silicon Hills.

“The Lone Star State has some of the top research facilities in America,” Smith said. “The Texas delegation works closely across party lines to help make sure that Texas innovators get their fair share of federal research grants.”

• Former Texas Lt. Gov. Ben Barnes hasn't held elective office in nearly four decades, but he's one of the most influential lobbyists in Washington. He is close to the Democratic leadership and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for moderate Democrats such as Louisiana's Mary Landrieu and Nick Begich of Alaska. Barnes' access and personal relationships might not guarantee funding for Texas projects, but he can assure they will get a hearing.

The biggest test of Texas clout will come over the next two years when the Pentagon completes the next round of base closures and realignments. Although the process is theoretically nonpolitical, Texas saved the Red River Army Depot in the northeastern part of the state and Dyess AFB in Abilene from closure after significant pressure was applied by Hutchison; then-Rep. Charlie Stenholm, a West Texas Democrat; and others.

This time, not only those facilities, but Fort Bliss in El Paso, Fort Hood in Central Texas and the military centers in San Antonio could be at risk — with no friend at the Pentagon.

richard.dunham@hearstcorp.com