Reversals of Fortune on Capitol Hill : Politics: Area GOP lawmakers are poised to push long-delayed legislation now that they have clout in Congress.

WASHINGTON —  Rep. Carlos J. Moorhead introduced the Biotech Process Patent Protection Act of 1989, the Biotech Process Patent Protection Act of 1991 and the Biotech Process Patent Protection Act of 1993.

Each time, the bill fell short of passage.

It is no surprise, then, that the Glendale Republican stepped onto the floor of the House of Representatives the other day and introduced--you guessed it--the Biotech Process Patent Protection Act of 1995.

“Mr. Speaker, today the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Boucher (Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher), and I are introducing the Biotech Process Patent Act of 1995,” Moorhead said. “This is the fourth consecutive Congress that we have introduced this legislation together.”

While Moorhead’s previous attempts to increase patent protection for biotechnology innovations were fruitless, the new political realities on Capitol Hill give him his best chance of seeing the bill signed into law. After all, Moorhead now chairs the intellectual property subcommittee that will give the measure first consideration, and his Republican colleagues now run the House.

“Moorhead has been saying for the last four or five years, ‘Let’s get this passed,’ ” said committee staffer Tom Mooney. “This year, I’d put money on it.”

Long-delayed proposals from other area lawmakers are expected to advance with newfound speed as well, as Republicans begin to flex their legislative muscles after years of being bound by the Democratic majority.

The 104th Congress has already reached the halfway mark in its 100-day effort to advance the Republican “contract with America.” When that is put to rest, lawmakers intend to push forward with proposals that, in the Democrat-controlled Congresses of years past, were not afforded much respect.

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), for instance, has seen his immigration reform measures get lost in the House bureaucracy year after year. Now, he is chairman of a congressional task force on immigration reform created by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), and his Immigration Reform Act of 1995, which contains many of the same past proposals, is on the fast track.

Gallegly first became involved in the immigration issue in 1990 when officials in Agoura Hills, which was part of his district until the 1992 reapportionment, complained about day laborers at a local shopping center.

In 1991, he sponsored a package of bills calling for counterfeit-resistant identification cards for immigrants, increased staffing for the Border Patrol and a constitutional amendment that would deny citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.

Finally, Gallegly says, some of his ideas are going to be considered by the House.

“As the minority party, it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to move things ahead,” Gallegly said. “Your role is to try to stop things. In the majority, we have an opportunity to move things ahead ourselves.”

The aspect of the system that is most frustrating, Gallegly said, is that the content of lawmakers’ ideas is often less important than which political party those ideas emerge from.

“You may have the best bill in the world--the cure for every disease in the world--but if it has the name of a minority party member on it, the chairman won’t allow it to proceed because the minority party would get credit for it,” Gallegly said.

Besides immigration, Gallegly is seeing other legislative logjams break as well.

During the 103rd Congress, he introduced legislation to abolish the Interior Department’s Office of Territorial and International Affairs, which he considered a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Gallegly’s bill got further than most Republican measures last year. It was granted a subcommittee hearing and received bipartisan support. But it was never referred to the full House for a vote.

This year, however, Gallegly is chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the Office of Territorial and International Affairs, which is responsible for U.S. territories such as Guam, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Gallegly scheduled a hearing on his bill earlier this month--only to learn that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt had closed down the $350-million operation in advance of the hearing.

Babbitt aides contend that the elimination of the territorial affairs office was part of the Clinton Administration’s ongoing effort to streamline government. But Gallegly says Clinton aides saw the handwriting on the wall and merely eliminated the office before Gallegly did.

He praised the Clinton Administration “for finally seeing the wisdom in something I’ve been advocating for more than a year.” Despite his victory, Gallegly is pushing ahead with his legislation anyway--just to be sure the territorial affairs office never reappears.

A relative newcomer to Congress, Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) has not been around long enough to become too frustrated with the process. Nonetheless, the second-term lawmaker did see one of his initiatives become bogged down in committee last year.

The bill would have prohibited the Secretary of Agriculture from transferring any national forest lands in the Angeles National Forest out of federal ownership for use as a solid waste landfill. The House Resources Committee was busy with desert protection legislation, and the then-committee chairman, Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), did nothing to move McKeon’s bill along.

This term, with his Republican colleagues running the committee, McKeon has reintroduced his bill to preserve Elsmere Canyon. And he is optimistic that it will pass.