GOP-controlled 109th Congress is identified with inaction and scandal

[paineinthearse]

Tipped off to this article by the House Dem daily whip newsletter.

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http://startribune.com/stories/587/5442802.html

Last update: June 7, 2005 at 7:37 AM
Congress faces raft of hot-button issues
Lawrence M. O'rourke
Star Tribune Washington Bureau Correspondent
Published June 7, 2005

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Stalled in confirmation fights and torn by ethics battles, Congress returns to work this week with a full plate of significant legislation, including energy policy and highway construction, as leaders promise an end to the stalemate of recent weeks. The Senate's first priority this week is to debate and vote on President Bush's nominations of several judges, starting with Janice Rogers Brown of California to serve on the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals. Her vote could come as early as today. The other judges, as well as the controversial nomination of John Bolton to be U.N. ambassador, could get a vote by the weekend, especially with many senators trying to preserve a truce on judicial nominees and the filibuster under a deal cut last month.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee is predicting the summer months will be productive for the majority Republicans. But GOP leaders are under pressure to act quickly if they are to carry bragging rights into an election year in which the prevailing party traditionally loses seats. Despite the fact that Republicans control the White House and both chambers on Capitol Hill, there's little legislation so far to distinguish this congress. "President Bush needs to get tough, maybe even a little mean, with Congress if it is to accomplish much," said Steve Hess, a congressional analyst with the Brookings Institution. "Time's running out. There's an awful lot of discontent, a feeling that Congress is identified with inaction and scandal."

Democrats, meanwhile, argue that the Republican leadership has been ineffective. "We've accomplished so little of what we were sent here for," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "This whole legislative year, we have yet to spend a single minute debating health care, debating education debating the environment."

Among other hot-button topics:
• The possible nomination of a U.S. chief justice to succeed the ailing William Rehnquist. While Rehnquist has not announced retirement plans, the expectation is for a vacancy to be filled by the time the Supreme Court opens its new session in October.
• A spate of ethics battles in the House, starting with a probe into Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. The focus may well start on DeLay's foreign travel and other perks paid for by private interests. But the aggressive finger-pointing will likely reveal a widespread pattern with the potential to drag in other legislators, Republicans and Democrats alike.
• Extension of wire-tapping and other investigatory authority granted the FBI after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Large chunks of that authority will expire unless renewed by this Congress, but there is intense opposition to renewal from a coalition that ranges across the political spectrum.
• Expansion of federal support for embryonic stem cell research. Supporters contend it could offer treatment and cures for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other diseases, and opponents condemn it as the destruction of human life. The House has passed this legislation. The Senate could act within the next two months. "We'll get it passed, maybe even with enough votes to override a veto," said GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.

Lawrence M. O'Rourke is at [e-mail].

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