U.S. Rep. Scott Garrett's Conservative Beliefs Grounded in N.J. Upbringing, Study of History

It's a familiar sight. Touring teenagers perched on the Capitol steps, listening with varying levels of attention to their representative welcoming them to where laws and history are made.

But Scott Garrett uses the occasion his own way.

"I explain something they won't hear anywhere else,'' says Garrett, a four-term Republican congressman from New Jersey's 5th District. "They won't read it in textbooks."

So he describes the rise of the Supreme Court from a relatively weak office to a third, co-equal branch of government. Part of why it happened, he says, was the erection 75 years ago of the neoclassical temple that's home to the court, visible to students just behind Garrett.

"The court was located in the Capitol building, under the watchful eye of the legislative branch," he tells students from Montvale's Fieldstone Middle School. "It changed the whole balance of power."

Some historians may disagree -- the Constitution's drafters were more concerned about legislative than judicial dominance, and the 1803 Marbury vs. Madison case set the precedent for judicial review of laws -- but the lecture reveals a lot about Garrett.

The congressman, considered by colleagues the most conservative in the New Jersey delegation, grounds his views in strongly held values informed by both his upbringing -- he was raised by religious parents on a farm in Sussex County's Wantage where he still lives -- and his reading of history.

"I trust the individual over the bureaucracy," says Garrett, adding that it is "within the individual where conflicts are resolved." People should neither blame others for their problems -- nor expect others to solve those problems.

He keeps a Bible displayed in his office -- he says he tries to read from it every day, but often doesn't have the time -- and behind his desk is a framed plaque with the words of George Washington's farewell address: "Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports."

The 50-year-old lawmaker sees his role in terms of a debate between historic figures, William Penn and John Locke, contemporaries, friends, philosophers. Locke, says Garrett, believed all we needed were good laws to create good government and a just society, no matter how bad people were. Penn, he says, believed we needed good people -- good laws were not enough.

"I look to Penn,'' he says.

But he is not locked in an 18th-century box. From positions on the House Financial Services and Budget committees, he has become a star in the GOP leadership.

Now the ranking Republican on the Financial Services Committee's Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, Garrett often debates committee chairman Barney Frank of Massachusetts on the floor and has become a leading minority voice in how best to deal with the financial crisis.

"They were wrong, they were just wrong," he declares at a House Budget Committee hearing featuring Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office. He is talking about the stimulus bills after Elmendorf reveals unemployment actually rose beyond projections. "They may have done more harm than good."

Garrett is a member of a Republican economic study group seeking alternatives to Democratic plans for greater regulation of financial institutions. The group also leads opposition to the so-called "cap-and-trade" plans included in a proposed energy bill.

Once chair of the New Jersey Assembly Banking and Insurance Committee, Garrett melds personal values he says are "focused on the family" with laissez-faire economic ideas. The crisis, he says, was caused by "flawed" regulation, not a lack of regulation.

In a speech before a national convention of state insurance officials, he talks knowledgeably about the impact of section 13.3 of Federal Reserve regulations, the "uptick" rule, and "mark to market" practices -- as if these were household terms.

He realizes the technical, even esoteric, nature of his expertise and it lets him demonstrate a sense of humor so dry it almost passes unnoticed. He asks for a show of hands from those conventioneers who believe they understand section 13.3, the rule used to justify the federal bailout of insurance giant AIG. A few hesitantly respond.

"The people who raised their hands don't have lives,'' he says.

Garrett says his wife warns him not to try to be funny because it takes too long for others to get his jokes -- if they ever do. For example, an aide enters his inner office and says she needs to know his reaction to a new regulatory plan. Garrett sits stone-faced and silent for a long moment. Then he suddenly throws his hands up in feigned shock.

"What?" the puzzled aide asks. Then she smiles. "Oh, I get it -- a reaction."

In the same conversation, they discuss what he will say at a press conference about the energy bill. "I don't want to be redundant and say the same thing over and over again," Garrett says and slyly smiles. Even the aide doesn't get the subtle joke.

At the news conference, Garrett, the only member from the Northeast, voices opposition to the "cap-and-trade" procedure that, Midwest Republicans say, will be a tax on people living in states reliant on fossil-fuel energy. Some say the language from the Republicans is strong.

"It's an economic declaration of war against the heartland of America by liberals in Washington," says Indiana representative Mike Pence.

Garrett doesn't use such language -- at least not now -- but he does raise objections to the likelihood energy companies will no longer be permitted to trade in "naked swaps" and will face liquidity problems. It's a reference to attempts to regulate so-called credit-default swaps, of which "naked swaps" are the most common.

He spends hours behind closed doors with aides, other Republicans, and representatives of trading interests trying to find alternatives to regulatory schemes pushed by Democrats. He sees answers in changes to bankruptcy laws. Over-regulation, he says, will lead to the government declaring some companies "too big to fail" and commit taxpayers in advance to saving these firms with bailouts.

That will create a "moral hazard" that will lead business leaders to ignore common honesty and prudence because they know they'll be bailed out by the government. The debate between Locke and Penn.

Garrett is wary of generalizations about his politics. When asked about his conservative beliefs, he counters he was voted "most radical" in his High Point graduating class -- "because I had a beard and started an underground newspaper.''

At Montclair State, he was elected student government treasurer. The experience taught him to be frugal with other people's money. He redefines "radical" as "intense."

"When I went to school, it was radical just to be involved in anything," he says.

He was interested in government since childhood, he says. As a teenager, the only time he incurred his parents' anger was when he returned home at 1 a.m. after attending a Wantage Township Council meeting that ran late.

He wanted to be an environmental lawyer, but couldn't find a job in the field after Rutgers Law School. He was hired by Selective Insurance, a Sussex County firm.

He has a reputation as pro-conservation and received a delegation from the Wallkill River National Wildlife Refuge whose representatives thanked him for supporting expansion of the reserve and opposing commercial development. Garrett also joined with others in the New Jersey delegation, including Democrats, in opposing new flight patterns designed to deal with delays at the three metropolitan area airports.

His committee assignments offer little of foreign affairs, but he assures visitors from NORPAC -- a pro-Israel lobby -- of his opposition to a "two state solution" to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. A lobbyist says, "I wish we could clone 434 more of you."

Garrett says the view is unrelated to his religious beliefs -- many Evangelical Christians are fiercely pro-Israel -- but rather his sense that "a Palestinian state cannot be made of such disparate parts.''

He calls his religious beliefs "conservative." His two daughters were home-schooled after elementary school, he says, not because he opposes public schools but because "no high school offering a Christian education" was near their home.

Garrett is protective of his privacy and doesn't like to talk about his family. He says his wife and daughters shy from public notice and are upset when confronted by strangers "at a county fair or a supermarket" who want to talk to him.

"People bug you all the time," he says. "Sometimes, it's a good bug, when they say you're doing a good job. When it's not a good bug, it's even worse."