WASHINGTON INSIGHT

SUPERFUND RENEWAL: The next environmental nettle Congress will have to grasp is renewal of the Superfund program, created in 1980 to clean up the nation’s worst toxic waste sites. House and Senate committees have held hearings on proposals to overhaul the program, which has been criticized for spending too much on lawyers and too little on cleanup. The White House has promised recommendations for change by Nov. 30, but final congressional action will have to wait until next year. . . . “The overriding issue is liability--who’s responsible for cleanup?” a House aide said. But remedies are also up for rewrite. Administration officials have suggested less onerous cleanup technologies, such as using bacteria or catalysts to degrade chemicals. Current methods generally involve digging up thousands of tons of soil for burial or burning, frequently at a site hundreds of miles away. Lawmakers are also considering easing standards for cleaning up soil and water at some sites, especially if they are to become parking lots. Environmental leaders have shown a willingness to go along. . . . “Excessive cleanup costs, endless delays, misdirected resources . . . seem to plague the Superfund program,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), member of a subcommittee overseeing the program.

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GOP’S F.O.B.: In the movie “Dave,” he was the short, husky House doorkeeper, announcing the President’s arrival for a joint session of Congress. In real life, Bill Pitts is the chief floor assistant to House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel (R-Ill.). And lately he has become something more: a very important Friend of Bill. He is President Clinton’s point man for building a crucial voting bloc: House Republicans supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement. With a majority of Democrats opposed to the pact, Clinton is depending on Republicans to carry the day. . . . A key GOP operative for many years, “Professor Pitts” is a familiar figure on Capitol Hill. But he’s becoming just as familiar around the White House as he plots NAFTA strategy with Clinton’s congressional lobbyists. “He’s probably there more frequently than he was under the (George) Bush regime,” a Michel aide said.

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RENO GOES HOLLYWOOD: While calling on TV networks to reduce violent programming, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno proposed a “positive” sitcom built around a 14-year-old boy who gets his crack-addicted mother into treatment and rears his siblings. . . . Under the Reno scenario, the effort is so successful that the cured mother enrolls in law school and the teen-ager is valedictorian of his high school class. . . . Within days after Reno offered her idea to TV executives, several independent producers called the Justice Department seeking a script for Reno’s show. . . . Told there was no script, the more persistent ones asked for “a treatment”--the show-biz term for a short description of the concept--so they could develop a script themselves.

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CALIFORNIA CLIPS: Rookie Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma), subject of a recent People magazine profile, is being pursued by movie-makers who see a screenplay written all over her ascension from welfare mother to member of Congress. . . . Sidney Williams, a Mercedes-Benz salesman and spouse of Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), faces scrutiny by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on his nomination to be ambassador to the Bahamas. . . . California Secretary of State March Fong Eu is set to be tapped as ambassador to Micronesia, pending background checks of her and her businessman husband. . . . Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina is one of 10 Clinton choices for the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, which seeks better ties among the various levels of government.