Rep. Harold Rogers

arold Rogers, who was first elected to Congress in 1980, is known as a consummate appropriator. He's served as chairman of the Commerce, Justice, State, and the Judiciary Subcommittee and the Transportation subcommittees, and is one of three members mentioned as a possible successor to full-committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., when term limits force Young to step down in 2005.

One key Republican staffer referred to Rogers, a 66-year-old lawyer and a veteran of the Army National Guard, as an "old-school guy."

The Homeland Security panel was created in March 2003, and Rogers had to assemble a staff quickly so he could write an appropriations bill. When he served as chairman of other subcommittees, Rogers did not oppose earmarking funds for specific projects, but he pushed to keep earmarks out of his appropriations bill last year. Rogers said that the panel did not have the time to evaluate specific requests from members, so the appropriations bill provided funds on a formula basis. Rogers, who was known for getting projects for his district in the past, said he would not rule out the possibility of putting earmarks in future homeland-security bills.

When he became chairman, Rogers immediately began aggressive oversight of the homeland-security infrastructure. He also hauled officials from the Transportation Security Administration before the subcommittee several times. "At a time when oversight is disappearing, he's conducting oversight," one Republican source said.

Rogers said that his panel has had to hold closed hearings because of the sensitivity of the testimony. "You don't want to tell where your Achilles's heel is," he said. Rogers said that his possible candidacy for full-committee chairman will play no role in his decisions on the homeland panel. He has consistently been re-elected by overwhelming margins; in the 2002 election, he received 78 percent of the vote.