Monday, July 10, 2006

The Do-Nothings

You'd think that, when a party controls both houses of Congress, and the White House, they could get some bidness, no matter how evil, done. And you'd be wrong:
Congress faces long list of unfinished tasks

By Donna Smith

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers returning from a weeklong break on Monday will take up a long list of unfinished -- and possibly insurmountable -- tasks that could help decide whether voters will re-elect them in November.

[....]"Historically this is certainly not a Congress that will be remembered," said Larry Sabato, of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "There is just not much there."
The contentious issues that remain to be handled? Nothing too much, just immigration reform, stem cell research, protecting pension plans, rising energy prices...nothing TOO important to legislators who have access to the best health care, best pension plan and under-the-table illegal laborers.

Oh...but there is one issue that Congress might take a bit of interest in getting done: funding the goverment.
When the Senate returns on Monday, it will take up a spending bill totaling nearly $32 billion that includes money for border patrols, the embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency, dirty-bomb detection and other domestic security activities.

It is one of 11 spending bills Congress hopes to complete before October 1, when the new fiscal year begins. There is little agreement, even among members of each party, about how much to spend and how much to cut.
Goodness knows, we wouldn't want to underfund homeland security, now would we?

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