Acts of bipartisanship in the nation’s capital aren’t quite so rare as the Washington media horde would have you believe, but the truth is, goodwill across the aisle on the issue of equal justice has been sporadic at best since the 1990s. 

The tension was most apparent during Legal Services Corporation’s annual funding debate, which for years had required the full House of Representatives to override attempts to halve LSC’s funding in committee. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), chairman of the House Appropriations panel with funding jurisdiction over LSC, put an end to committee bickering by announcing support for LSC’s mission upon assuming his leadership position in 2000. Last year, Congressman Wolf secured an additional $9.5 million for LSC during conference negotiations. This June, he made his strongest statement yet in support of the national legal services program, approving a $338.8 million Fiscal Year 2004 budget for LSC. 

The committee figure, which subsequently was adopted by the full House, represents a $2 million increase over last year and is $10 million more than President Bush requested for LSC in his budget.

As a result of Wolf’s support, advocates saw one of the legal services feel-good moments of the recent past play out on the House floor on July 22. Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY)—the fiery, ranking Democrat on the funding subcommittee—stood up and publicly thanked his Republican counterpart for his strong leadership on the issue of equal justice.

“I want to thank the Chairman for caring for some of the issues that so many Members care for, and the Legal Services Corporation is one of them,” Rep. Serrano said. “In the past, we were forced to come to the House to try to amend the bill to bring it back to last year’s funding. The chairman has chosen in his tenure as chairman to make sure 
that we do not do that…and I thank him for that.”

The Senate must still approve the House number before it becomes final. If the full $338.8 million were included in the final spending bill and signed by the President, it would represent LSC’s largest appropriation since 1995.