Ensign puts building alliances ahead of rushing into fights

Monday, Feb. 26, 2001 | 10 a.m.

Sen. John Ensign has learned quickly that as a new member of the upper house, he can't go in with guns blazing and hope to change fellow lawmakers' opinions about a proposed betting ban on college sports or a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain.

Better he should get his golf game up to par and improve his schmoozing skills, Ensign admits.

"I can't walk up to another senator as a freshman senator and just start talking about a bill. I have to first form relationships," Ensign, R-Nev., said Friday as he held an open house at his new offices on the eighth floor of the Lloyd George Federal Building.

"Whether it's playing golf or going to lunch, you develop a close working relationship."

Ensign, who served in the House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999, said things are different in the way the houses operate. He said he is learning a lot from Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., about parliamentary procedures and the workings of committees such as Banking and Commerce. Ensign is a member of both.

The Banking and Commerce committees cover various issues, including transportation, insurance, banking and securities. Ensign said he has "done a lot of studying to get up to speed" on issues those committees deal with, such as monetary supply, which he calls complex.

During the weeklong Presidents Day recess for the 107th Congress, Ensign also prepared to push his bill that is aimed at putting a dent in illegal gambling nationwide instead of killing lucrative legal betting in Nevada sports books.

The effort is to stop the college betting ban measure proposed by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and sought by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, from getting to the Senate floor. Last year the bill, which has support from many members of Congress and several high-profile college coaches, failed to get to the floor for a vote.

In that fight, Ensign has found an interesting ally -- Assistant Senate Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., who in a close and bitterly contested 1999 campaign edged Ensign out during Ensign's first shot at the Senate.

"People thought Senator Reid and I could not work well together," Ensign said, noting that he and Reid are on the same course on this issue and that Ensign's betting bill has gotten its first co-sponsor, Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.

Ensign has predicted that if McCain's bill reaches the floor this year, it will pass, thus ending Nevada's distinction as the only state that allows gambling on college sports. Ensign reiterated Friday that he is "meeting one-on-one to educate them (fellow lawmakers) on this."

Ensign, 42, also remains athletic. Last Friday he was sporting his latest sports-related injury -- a taped-up jammed left pinky finger he received while diving for a basketball during a pickup game.

Nuclear waste is another top priority for Ensign. He reiterated Friday that he will continue to offer lawmakers from 31 states where such waste is generated alternatives to making Yucca Mountain the nation's permanent nuclear waste repository.

"The interim storage bill appears dead, and six years ago that did not seem (like it was) possible," Ensign said, noting he will continue to push for the recycling of nuclear waste with the research to be done in Southern Nevada and the actual recycling to be performed at a plant in Georgia that is equipped for such a project.