KSG Hosts Orientation for Congressional Frosh

Unlike most of his family, Joseph P. Kennedy II had to wait until age 33 for freshman orientation at Harvard.

Scheduled to take office as Congressman for the Eighth District on January 6, Kennedy plans to join his other newly elected members of the House of Representatives for an intensive course in Capitol Hill know-how at the Kennedy School of Government this week. For three days the newly elected congressmen will attend lectures by K-School experts and other political pundits from across the country.

The Congressional cram session, which will be closed to the public, covers aspects of legislation considered on the Hill--ranging from Soviet-American relations to "Small-Town America" and "The Washington Community."

The K-School has scheduled Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole, and Norman Orenstein of the American Enterprise Institute to speak at the six-day conference.

Marshall I. Goldman, associate director of the Russian Research Center and Dimitri *** of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace are scheduled to lecture on Soviet-American foreign policy, and Professor of Government Jorge I. Dominguez will lead a session on Central America with retired General Wallace Nutting.

The seminars are designed to "introduce [the Congressmen] to the different issues so they know what's going to hit them," said Sarah Farnsworth, assistant director of the Institute of Politics (IOP) at the K-School.

The K-School has sponsored similar programs for the last 14 years. Grants from the House Administration Committee, the IOP, the Tisch Family Foundation and the Sears Roebuck Foundation will fund the session, Farnsworth said.

Key Committees for Joe?

The freshmen spent three days last week in a Capitol Hill orientation session, Kennedy spokesman Chuck McDermott said yesterday from Washington.

Kennedy joins the Democratic Congressional Caucus this week, when Congressional party leaders will be chosen and committee memberships are assigned.

Kennedy expects "one big and one small" membership, and he seeks to join committees on Energy and Commerce, Banking or on Armed Services, McDermott said. The caucus will announce committee assignments in early January.

Closer To Home

State Sen. George Bachrach (D-Watertown) announced last week that he plans to practice law when his term expires in January. The former Congressional candidate, who lost to Kennedy in the September 16 Democratic primary, spoke at a birthday dinner organized to retire his $115,000 campaign debt.

"Two years is a long wait for a paycheck," Bachrach spokesman Ken Goode said of the Senator's return to private life. Bachrach forfeited his right to seek re-election by remaining in the Congressional race until September. However, Goode added that another candidacy for office is possible "if the opportunity presents itself."

Senator-elect Michael J. Barrett '70, will not attend any elaborate orientation sessions before he succeeds Bachrach as northwestern Cambridge's State Senator. Goode says Barrett has been "hanging his hat" in the Bachrach office lately, but "there's nothing to hand over except the furniture, some background files, and a few pointers on how to get things done."

Barrett is a six-year veteran of the State House, where he served as a representative from Reading until an ill-timed run for Congress left him out of office in 1984.