Rep. Stivers offers another penny proposal

Stivers, whose 15th district includes Vinton County, has once again proposed the Cents and Sensibility Act, an effort to save money by changing the composition of each U.S. coin.

His plan calls for minting all pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters with American-made steel rather than metals that are often more expensive and imported from other countries. Currently, pennies are mostly zinc with a little bit of copper and the other three coins are made from copper and nickel.

Over the past few years, the cents issue has become a legislative pet project for Rep. Stivers (R-Upper Arlington). A conservative on fiscal matters, Stivers argues the policy change on coin making could save the country millions of dollars.

Beyond that, the congressman has financial ties with Worthington Industries, a Columbus-based steel manufacturing company that could stand to benefit from the proposed changes.

Proposing pennies after receiving dollars

In November 2012, Stivers' congressional web page promoted a news brief first published by Columbus Business Journal that details his legislative efforts. The story reports Stivers and Worthington Industries are "pushing for steel to replace the metal" used in coins.

Another part of the story — which Stivers' website does not include in its snippet — states the company would be "eager to chase the U.S. business." The report then quotes Cathy Lyttle, vice president of communications and investor relations for Worthington Industries, referring to the steel-processing division of the company as "a nice business."

Worthington Industries has not yet responded to a Courier request for comment on whether it continues to back Stivers' legislation. However, campaign finance records documented by the Center for Responsive Politics indicate the company has been a noteworthy and consistent supporter of Stivers' political career.

Rep. Stivers first ran for Congress in 2008 and won his first election in 2010. He was re-elected in 2012 and 2014. Since 2008, the Worthington Industries Political Action Committee has donated a total of $27,000 to those four congressional campaigns. In that time period, this amount is the most the PAC has given to any one candidate.

Cathy Lyttle was listed as the PAC treasurer in a 2014 filing with the Federal Election Commission.

Also in those four campaigns, Stivers received more than $44,000 in donations from individual people connected to Worthington Industries. By law, political campaigns must disclose the name and place of employment of each person who donates $200 or more. 

In the 2012 and 2014 election cycles, the Worthington Industries PAC also donated a total of $8,500 to the re-election campaigns of Rep. Patrick Tiberi (R-Columbus). Tiberi has co-sponsored every Stivers attempt at passing the bill.

In an email, Stivers' Press Secretary Maria Dill did not address Worthington Industries specifically but noted the Cents and Sensibility Act could benefit any number of steel producers throughout the United States.

"Congressman Stivers introduced this legislation to reduce the cost of making coins and to help save the federal government money, as well as help create American jobs," Dill wrote in an email. "The bill does include a buy American provision, but there are dozens of companies who qualify and any company interested would be required to bid on the business as with any government contract."

The cost of coins

It costs 1.8 cents to produce and distribute a one-cent coin, the U.S. Mint found in a 2013 report. The nickel faces the same problem: each five-cent coin costs taxpayers 9.4 cents to make.

As for dimes and quarters, the two coins have a face value more than twice the amount it costs to make them.

This whole idea stretches back to at least 2007, when an Illinois politician tried (unsuccessfully) to change composition of the penny.

Stivers' first push came his first year in Congress in 2011, when he introduced two bills — one dealing with pennies, another with nickels. Congress reacted by figuratively stuffing the loose change in its pocket; the bills died after being referred to the Financial Services Committee, one Stivers has served on throughout his career.

Work in Congress is divided into two-year legislative terms and proposed bills cannot carry over to separate terms. So to keep the idea alive in a new term, Stivers had to re-introduce the bill.

For his second try, he altered the composition of his bill to include changing all four coins. This attempt died in committee as well.

The trouble for bill sponsors is once their idea passes through the appropriate committee, then the House Committee on Rules gets to call the shots on how the bill gets debated. The Senate can filibuster and debate for hours if it wants to, but the House is more rigid: members are allotted a specific, often brief amount of time to speak about any given topic.

This Rules Committee, therefore, is both powerful and exclusive. It includes only 11 out of the 435 members of the House of Representatives.

Funny thing is, Stivers recently became one of them.

The process (and peril) of penny proposals

Passing laws is not an exercise for politicians with a low tolerance for patience and boredom. Besides all the committee obstacles, the Speaker of the House chooses whether to let the bill come to a vote or instead flick the penny to the pavement.

If the House passes the bill, the Senate gets its own crack at it. Then of course the president gets a final say. In recent years, Republicans have had a tough time wheedling through the Democratically-held Senate and White House.

This all explains why such a small percentage of the thousands of proposed bills ever become law. The rigorous process supposedly filters out unworthy ideas.

Stivers may feel he has a good enough shot this time around to beat the odds. The Cents and Sensibility Act has once again been referred to the committee he serves on, and if that goes well, the Rules Committee he also serves on will take its own look.

The 2014 election flipped the Senate to becoming a Republican majority this term, so his bill could hold up if it passes the House first.

President Barack Obama and Republican legislators may not agree on much, but apparently this issue might be one avenue for bipartisanship.

"The (Obama) Administration has in the past supported the study of using alternative materials for minting coins — including steel," Press Secretary Dill wrote.

Dill said Stivers' office has even tried to get the Obama administration to include these changes in the Fiscal Year 2016 budget, though there has not been official word whether it will be included.

A penny for your thoughts?

While the coin conflict is not exactly high on Americans' priority list, public surveys indicate Stivers may have broad support for his measures. Americans for Common Cents, a penny advocacy group that really exists, commissioned its own poll and found roughly two out of three Americans support keeping the penny around.

Stivers' penny proposal might not pass, but no one can positively protest his persistence.