Federal File

A surprise snowstorm in Washington last week threw a curve in the daily commutes of some House appropriators--but it wasn't the Southerners who got stuck.

When the House subcommittee on education appropriations met March 9, only Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, a native of South Carolina, and Rep. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, were on time for the 10 a.m. hearing. Rep. John Edward Porter, the subcommittee's chairman and a native of the Chicago area, called en route from his home in nearby northern Virginia to ask Mr. Wicker to pinch-hit for him as he spent more than 1...