Lawmakers Head For The Hills
Congress starts its August break after moving briskly on corporate fraud and trade but facing a pre-election fall session deadlocked over health and the budget and with voters distracted by the wobbly economy.
July was a whirlwind month for lawmakers, who dueled over major bills to create a new Department of Homeland Security, to provide Medicare prescription drug benefits and set stiff penalties for fraudulent accounting. The results were mixed, and Congress also found itself competing for attention with the plummeting stock market and a parade of revelations about corporate wrongdoing.
"There's a lot of background noise," said Fred Yang, a Democratic consultant. "People are very focused on their own lives."
On Friday, President Bush signed a popular measure that took Congress four months to complete: A $28.9 billion package for battling terrorists overseas and tightening security at home.
With Republican control of the House and the Senate's Democratic majority threatened in November's elections, both parties are struggling to tap into voters' concerns while blaming each other when things bog down.
On Friday, Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., praised Senate passage of a strengthened defense budget and final approval of trade and accounting legislation. At the same time, he accused Democrats of having no answers for helping the economy, other than criticizing Bush and the GOP for last year's tax cut.
"All they can do is say, 'Oh, the sky is falling! The sky is falling!'" Lott told reporters. He added later: "In order to be able to throw rocks, I think you first need to say, 'What is your alternative, Senator Daschle and the Democrats?'"
Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., cited the same bills, plus others to finance anti-terrorism spending and expand efforts against AIDS overseas, for producing "one of the most successful and productive sessions of Congress we've had in a long period of time."
Daschle also blamed the GOP for blocking Democratic efforts for prescription drug benefits and expanded rights for patients of health-maintenance organizations, which have been a top party priority.
Following are highlights of recent congressional action and expected activity this fall:
The Senate passed a record $355 billion defense bill for next year, setting up negotiations with the House. The House approved a measure establishing a Department of Homeland Security. Passage is expected next month in the Senate, where Democrats worry the measure lacks needed worker protections.
Congress finished and Mr. Bush signed a bill setting prison terms for corporate fraud, curbing accountants' consulting activities and creating an independent board to oversee accounting firms.
A House-Senate compromise making it harder for people to declare bankruptcy stalled short of House passage after conservatives opposed provisions barring people who attack abortion clinics from declaring bankruptcy to avoid court fines. Both chambers voted to deny federal contracts to companies that move offshore to duck U.S. taxes.
The Senate stalemated over competing plans for providing prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries, after the House approved a $320 billion version Democrats say covers too few people. The Senate voted to speed generic drugs to market and let importers buy U.S.-made drugs in Canada, where they are cheaper, and resell them here. Efforts to expand managed-care patients' rights bogged down.
Largely on GOP votes, Congress sent the president a bill strengthening his power to strike trade pacts by barring amendments by lawmakers. To lure some Democrats, the bill gives tax breaks for health care to workers who lose jobs to foreign competition.
Congress has finished none of the 13 bills keeping agencies functioning in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1. Clashes are certain because the Senate wants to spend $11 billion more than Mr. Bush and the House, a small but important fraction of the $750 billion-plus measures.
The president opposes measures dropping barriers against trade and travel with Cuba. A clash looms over whether Bush needs congressional approval to use force against Iraq.
Congress approved Mr. Bush's plan to store nuclear waste at Nevada's Yucca mountain, and the House expelled Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., D-Ohio, after his corruption conviction.
Lawmakers are fighting over whether terrorism insurance should protect businesses from punitive damages. Talks drag on over a wide-ranging energy bill. Congress is split over whether to ban cloning and a rarely used abortion procedure called partial-birth abortion by its foes.