By Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Foreign Service

MEXICO CITY –– The Mexican Congress, long an anonymous and little-respected rubber-stamp operation for presidents with king-like authority, is poised to
become an independent check on the presidency for the first time in decades.

This Congress, which was elected July 2 and takes office Sept. 1, represents a dramatic change because no party will hold a majority in either house and the new
president, who takes office Dec. 1, thus will no longer effectively determine on his own how laws are made. This, members of Congress predict, will fundamentally
alter the balance of power in Mexico, whose president traditionally has operated with near omnipotence.

The shift has potentially enormous consequences. For example, Mexico's 100 million citizens are expected to have more of a voice in government decisions by
working through their congressmen. Mexican and U.S. corporations competing for chunks of the $200 billion in annual trade between the two countries will have to
pay attention to legislators who have rarely mattered before.

As a result, the lawmakers suddenly are among the capital's most sought-after political players. Some need two cellular phones to answer the flood of calls from
President-elect Vicente Fox's office, members of competing parties and lobbyists who never before bothered even to learn their names.

For instance, Ricardo Garcia Cervantes, a legislator from Fox's National Action Party, or PAN, said Chase Manhattan Bank representatives visited him last week to
sound him out on the new Congress. In the past, he said, officials of big companies lobbied only the executive branch and never bothered asking his opinion about
anything.

"They're smart people," he said. "They understand the realities. Why would they want to talk to a legislator with no influence? Now they see the influence of the
Congress. I don't want to seem vain or arrogant, but I feel very satisfied about this. Now 25 years of my life are making sense. . . . Now I'm glad to be recognized as
a politician."

In this new political landscape, Congress also will largely determine the success or failure of Fox, the first president in 71 years from outside the Institutional
Revolutionary Party, or PRI. "Fox needs Congress to get what he wants done," said Jeffrey A. Weldon, a political scientist at the Autonomous Technical Institute
here.

Fox will need congressional support to make good on his pledges to vastly increase education funding and overhaul corrupt law enforcement and judicial systems.
Without a Mexican president's traditional army of legislative yes men, he will have to wheel and deal in a way none of his predecessors had to.

Fox already is feeling heat that PRI presidents never got from past congresses. Fox told reporters last week that he was considering new taxes on food and medicine
to fund his proposed expansion of education and social programs. But that was immediately seen as a flip-flop from his campaign rhetoric and generated a blizzard of
criticism, some of it from lawmakers in his own party. A day later, Fox's lieutenants backpedaled hard, saying the statement was merely an idea.

"It's the most important thing to solve for Fox," said Javier Medina, congressional liaison for the commerce ministry. "His own party is not going to be as disciplined
as the PRI was with the executive branch. He will have to lobby both ways--to the opposition, and to his own party."

Congress got its first taste of power after elections in July 1997, when the PRI lost its majority in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies. Then, opposition
legislators took over committee chairmanships, only to discover that their PRI predecessors had never bothered to keep records--their sole function having been to
approve legislation the president handed down.

But until the July 2 elections, the PRI dominated the upper house, the Senate, as well as holding the presidency. Now that voters have changed all that, the new game
in Mexico City is coalition-building, and legislators are finding themselves the hottest dinner dates in town.

"The coming changes are good for the country," said Jorge Bustillos, congressional liaison for the government's environment agency.

Bustillos's position did not exist three years ago, but now similar congressional liaison offices are being replicated and expanded throughout government and industry.
"Because Congress has more power, because it matters more, we will get better people, better ideas," Bustillos said. "It is the next part of the democratic evolution
of Mexico."

In the past, the executive branch initiated virtually all legislation, and the president passed down the line that PRI legislators were obliged to parrot on the issues of the
day. But now, more and more initiatives are expected to come from Congress.

Top officials on Fox's transition team say they are compiling sophisticated databases to identify opposition legislators, their interests, their friends and how best to win
their votes on particular issues. Aliza Chelminsky, an executive with the public relations firm of Burson-Marsteller, said lobbyists also are busy "mapping" the issues,
arguments and power networks of the new members of Congress.

Some former PRI legislators and government officials, out of power for the first time, are getting into the lobbying business. Last week, a group of outgoing
bureaucrats met at a private home to form the National Association of Lobbying Professionals. Group members say they want to set ethics standards and regulations
for this fast-growing new field.

Carlos Medina Plascencia, a senior PAN lawmaker, said legislators are also worried that money from professional lobbyists could poison the new legislative process.
He said the party plans to introduce legislation regulating lobbying in the coming congressional session.

Despite Congress's new energy and relevance, many believe it needs fundamental reforms before it can consolidate its power. Mexican legislators are prohibited
from election to consecutive terms--a restriction that hampers Congress's ability to build and wield power. All parties are discussing a constitutional amendment that
would ease the restriction.

Also, Congress has few staff members to help research legislation, develop policy--or even make photocopies. Most legislators share secretaries and have little
money to hire policy staffers. Many lawmakers are pushing for creation of an agency similar to the U.S. Congressional Research Service to provide information to
legislators who had relied largely on information from the executive branch.

Mauricio Reyes, congressional liaison for Mexico's finance ministry, said the new power of Congress is healthy for Mexico. "This is sad because I am a member of
the PRI," he said. "But it is good for democracy."

                                               © 2000 The Washington Post Company