|
The No Work, All Play Congress
September 28, 2006
When Congress adjourns for the November elections later this week, "it appears that just 2 of the 11 required spending bills will pass." The budget will not have been enacted, forcing Congress to pass a stopgap measure to keep the federal government open. The legislative branch has also stumbled in its efforts to pass much-debated bills on lobbying reform, immigration, offshore oil drilling, minimum wage, and the estate tax. "A popular package of business and education tax credits is teetering." Long-time congressional analysts Thomas Mann of Brookings and Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute wrote recently, "[E]ven those of us with strong stomachs are getting indigestion from the farcical end of the 109th Congress....With few accomplishments and an overloaded agenda, it is set to finish its tenure with the fewest number of days in session in our lifetimes, falling well below 100 days this year." As a new Center for American Progress analysis underscores, Congress will depart Washington, D.C. leaving many national security matters unresolved.
- Congress has failed to support our troops. Congressional leaders have been unable to come together to pass the defense authorization bill, allowing unrelated and nonessential provisions, such as whether federal judges should be permitted to carry concealed weapons into their chambers, and thus have stalled its passage. Without an authorization bill, a range of problems that plague America's fighting force will remain unresolved. The military is undoubtedly over-stretched; the Pentagon recently ordered 3,800 troops in Iraq to stay for another 46 days while also calling another unit into Iraq 30 days ahead of schedule. The Army Chief of Staff Peter Schoomaker withheld his 2008 budget plan from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to protest the insufficient funding the Army is receiving.
- Congress has failed to protect chemical plants. "Congress still has done nothing to protect Americans from a terrorist attack on chemical plants." Because the chemical industry — a heavy contributor to political campaigns — does not want to pay the cost of reasonable safety measures, the Congressional leadership is behind closed doors preparing a bill that is a "near-complete cave-in to industry, and yet more proof that when it comes to a choice between homeland security and the desires of corporate America, the Republican leadership always goes with big business." A recent American Progress report identified more than 280 chemical facilities in 47 states that have switched to safer alternative chemicals or processes, demonstrating that significant security improvements are possible and affordable. Nonetheless, Congress has not acted to secure the roughly 14,000 other chemical facilities that continue to threaten American communities.
- Congress failed to pass an energy bill or enact comprehensive immigration reform. Nearly 10 months after the president declared that America was addicted to oil, congressional leaders are preparing to adjourn Congress without having taken concrete action to cure America of that addiction. Amid record high gas prices this summer, Congress refused to mandate increases in fuel economy or to consider new ways to create incentives for American automakers to reduce oil consumption. And instead of tackling our broken immigration system, Congress has decided to throw taxpayer money away by pursuing border enforcement-only proposals that have not and cannot work. The enforcement-alone approach has been tried and failed.
|
