The last time U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun checked, Congress had 39 committees or subcommittees wrangling over what happened before, during and after Sept. 11.

“That’s too many,” he said, addressing a Thursday luncheon meeting of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.

Ryun, R-Kan., said he had proposed lumping many of these committees into a single subcommittee that would answer to the House Armed Services Committee. His idea, he said, has been forwarded to the House Committee on Committees for consideration.

If adopted, Ryun said the new subcommittee would not take effect until the next session, which begins in January.

When Ryun stood for questions, Al Neutel, the plainspoken president of Reuter Pipe Organ Co., said it was “asinine” to have 39 committees and subcommittees studying Sept. 11.

“What are you going to do to cut out that nonsense?” Neutel asked Ryun, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.

Ryun said he understood Neutel’s frustration and asked him to be patient.

“In Congress, sometimes the wheels turn very slowly,” Ryun said.

Afterward, Neutel said he remained discouraged.

“I just don’t see anything being accomplished,” Neutel said. “I’m at the point where I’m ready to give up. I’m cynical  I don’t think that’s right, I shouldn’t feel that way, but I do. And I don’t think I’m alone.”

Ryun also said he had been told a National Guard Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team would soon be stationed in Topeka. The 22-member team, he said, would mount the area’s first response to a terrorist attack.

On reapportionment, Ryun said he had asked that Lawrence not be split between the 2nd and 3rd congressional districts. But most of his input, he said, “ended up in the trash can.”

He said he expected 3rd District Congressman Dennis Moore, D-Kan., to take the lead on issues affecting Kansas University because most of the campus remained in Moore’s district.

Under a reapportionment plan approved by the Kansas Legislature, most Lawrence voters living west of Iowa Street will be in Ryun’s district, and those living east of Iowa will be in Moore’s.

“I’m happy to represent everybody in the district,” Ryun said. “It doesn’t mater who they are or whether they agree with me  my door is open to everyone.”

Ryun, who filed for re-election Wednesday, confirmed hearing rumors that he was planning to be succeeded by one of his two sons.

“I have no idea how that rumor got started  and that’s all it is, a rumor,” he said. “I intend to serve for as long as people are willing to elect me.”