110th Congress: 2007 January Report
Posted in Uncategorized, Public Affairs, Money Matters, Technology, Health, Education, Bush, Terrorism, war, wordpress, Politics, campaign, election, Lieberman, Biden, McCain, GOP, Democrats, Immigration, Tancredo, blogroll, conservative, liberal, internet, blog, conspiracy, Kennedy, Kyl, Waxman, sodrel, lobbyist, disclosure, ethics, oversight, Specter, Justice, Video, Public, COPE Act, Net Neutrality, telecom, Markey, Sensenbrenner, obama, hillary, kerry, Opinion, Jeff Flake, Cheney, Medicare, Murtha, Hoyer, Reid, Gabrielle Giffords, Foreign Affairs, Dingell, Conyers, Byrd, Grassley, Congress, Silvestre Reyes, Border Control, Minimum Wage, Stem Cell Research, Hagel, Legislation, Military, Senator Enzi, David Obey, James Oberstar on February 5th, 2007 by Stanford Matthews
So how did the United States Congress do in the first month of the 110th session? You be the judge. First, a little review of the fact that posts here have sometimes asked why we get so focused on what Congress does. After all, they legislate. That’s it. They legislate. The can pass laws. Whatever the House passes must be passed in the Senate also. So both Houses of Congress must pass the same version of a bill before it can become law. Then it goes to the President. He can sign it into law. He can veto it and send it back to Congress. He can pocket-veto at the end of the session. Or he can pretty much ignore it and it becomes law. All you expert legal types out there, feel free to refute this if you must.
Next, Congressional action is either a bill or resolution. Most of the time, resolutions are pretty much useless to the ordinary citizen. There is one example this past month that is not useless. It should not have to come to this but usually does. A joint resolution is similar to a bill. The one last month was for appropriations. You know, to keep the government operating until Congress and the President figure out what they’re doing.
So six bills and one joint resolution have the term “on passage” next to them in the voting record in the House. Being that it is joint and includes the Senate, that’s the only thing showing up on their completed list. Then there are the six bills. You’ll remember them from the daily reminder of the 100 hour agenda. Here’s a take on that.
On January 9, 2007, House of Representatives 1 or HR1 was passed.
This is to implement 9/11 Commission items.
On January 10, 2007, HR2 was passed.
This is for increasing minimum wage over 26 months.
On January 11, 2007, HR3 was passed.
This is to “enhance” stem cell research.
On January 12, 2007, HR4 was passed.
This allows government to negotiate medicare drug prices.
On January 17, 2007, HR5 was passed.
This lowers interest rates on government backed student loans
On January 18, 2007, HR6 was passed.
This is an act for alternative energy creation. That’s quite an act.
On January 19, 2007, HR475 was passed to revise the House Page Board.
The above items are what the House passed. The Senate passed the one joint resolution with the House. And one item became law that was posted here earlier. It is for renaming a National Recreation Area.
One law was passed to rename a park. And the other bills have many hurdles to cross before they can become law. Even if they become law there is no guarantee they will have any positive effects. No one, with any regularity, will follow up on them. So the Congress has done nothing for one month. They have solved nothing. There is only one item as law and it is not critical. 21 Senators are worried about 2008 due to re-election. Other Senators are worried about running for President. And the rest have passed one joint resolution and participated in renaming a park.
We would be better off paying more attention to the remainder of government. At the federal level at least, nothing productive is happening in the legislative branch. Ask anyone from the House or Senate if they care to dispute this. The new Democratic majority are developing disharmony among themselves as are the GOP members. If any of you still hold out optimism for the 110th Congress, good for you. Currently, the chances of Congress contributing to the overall good of the country are slim. That is unless they change their ways. And they will not.
Stanford Matthews
MoreWhat.com
Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Senate Assistant Democratic Leader Richard Durbin released the following statement tonight on President Bush’s address to the nation on the war in Iraq.
Time to review the stated initial agenda of the Democratic majority in the 110th Congress.. Based solely on Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi’s choice for the next majority leader, Jack Murtha, and Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Silvestre Reyes, everyone, including Democrats, should be concerned about the near-term future in politics.
The first item is actually two. The first, break the link between lobbyists and legislation should be rephrased as eliminate the funded practice of lobbying public officials. The second item is really revenue, expenditures and the government’s ability to manage money responsibly. Essentially, this is just more rhetoric from a politician. It can only become excellence in governing if all the players participate honestly. That includes the public and private sector as well as the public in general. The public allows this behavior to continue by voting for incumbents or not voting at all. The public sector sustains special interest influence and fiscal irresponsibility by viewing such matters as political reality. As if they have no control over it. The private sector is guilty of developing the practices that tempt politicians to engage in dishonest behavior. The most evil characteristic is universal compliance in the practices of lobbying resulting in lopsided campaign funding that favors corrupt politics. If you don’t play along you are less likely to get re-elected. 
With earmarks and pork-barrel spending, all the pet projects equally related to special interest provide mismanagement of public funds. Most direct involvement by all players public or private are typically structured to mask what would otherwise be considered criminal. Only a handful ever face indictment and even if convicted their incarceration is rare or they stay at club fed or a federal “camp” like Jack Abramoff. They get the Martha Stewart treatment. While the resto fo us would be in a real prison, the chosen few emerge suffering little real damage. What the hell, you can write a book or redefine your corporation after a short stay financed by the taxpayer who you were ripping off to begin with.
This is all reminiscent of Ford pardoning Nixon and the club fed stays of his henchmen and their book deals. Nixon, Agnew, Haldeman, Haig, Ehrlichman, Dean, Liddy and a host of others perpetrated crimes at the highest levels of government and survived the consequences quite well. Clinton’s escapades in the oval office as well as staggering bad decisions throughout his administration escapes impeachment for lying to Congress and continues to benefit from his actions long after leaving office. The recent Foley scandal and the guilty pleas of the likes of Bob Ney and others are a testament to the abuse of power we accept.
