[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 35 (Wednesday, March 25, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E464]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        THE DO-NOTHING CONGRESS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. LEE H. HAMILTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 25, 1998

  Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I insert my Washington Report for 
Wednesday, March 25, 1998, into the Congressional Record.

                        The Do-Nothing Congress

       1965, my first year in Congress, was extraordinary in its 
     legislative accomplishments. In that year Congress enacted 
     Medicare, aid to education, and voting rights legislation, 
     just to name a few examples.
       1998, my last year in Congress, has been extraordinary so 
     far for the opposite reason. Each week, Congress wants to get 
     out of town as quickly as it can, come back as late as 
     possible and spend a minimal amount of time in session. The 
     legislative schedule for this year calls for Congress to meet 
     for fewer than 90 days--including Mondays and Fridays, when 
     virtually no real business gets done. That's the shortest 
     schedule in history. At this time, Congress has only about 50 
     serious legislative days remaining before it adjourns in 
     October. The biggest bill enacted so far was the renaming of 
     Washington National Airport in honor of Ronald Reagan.
       Congress is doing a bare minimum to get by. Members feel 
     that the less we do here the better. They want to go home 
     more often to remind the public of their accomplishments--
     most notably, last year's balanced budget agreement--and want 
     to avoid the high-profile errors of the recent past, like the 
     government shutdowns in 1995 and 1996 and the delay in 
     passing a disaster relief bill for flood victims last year.
       So far, the ``recess strategy'' employed by the 
     congressional leadership seems to be working. For the first 
     time in 25 years, a majority of Americans approves of the way 
     Congress is doing its job. Congress, one of the most 
     criticized institutions in America, has rarely gotten above a 
     40% job approval rating in recent years. Today it's at 56%. 
     The standing joke here is that Congress is never more popular 
     than when it is in recess. There isn't any doubt that the 
     nation's soaring economy and the mellow political mood in the 
     country have contributed to these high ratings, but it's also 
     true that voters are pleased with the balanced budget 
     agreement and this year's anticipated budget surplus, and 
     those two achievements will certainly define this 105th 
     Congress. When people feel better about the performance of 
     government it helps everybody in the government.


                                Outlook

       Much of the remaining time is going to be taken up with 
     measures that simply have to be passed, like the budget and 
     the appropriation bills, and very popular legislation, like 
     the highway bill.
       The parties are at loggerheads over a long list of major 
     issues including a minimum wage increase, education 
     initiatives, campaign finance reform, Medicare expansion, tax 
     policy, and the terms of any new funding for the United 
     Nations and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 
     addition, some of the legislative possibilities have already 
     been foreclosed. There will not be a campaign finance bill 
     this year, must to my distress. It is unlikely there will be 
     a significant environmental legislation, and it's beginning 
     to look now as if we will not address the long-term problems 
     of financing Social Security and Medicare. Those items will 
     not be taken up until the next Congress, if then. The tobacco 
     legislation is very much in doubt and a great deal of work 
     needs to be done on a code of conduct for the managed care 
     industry and increased support for child care.
       All of which is not to say that there aren't any high-
     stakes battles ahead in the remainder of the legislative 
     year. Education will be one. Members of Congress are very 
     much aware that across the country parents and business 
     leaders want more done to improve the quality of education. 
     Congress has before it competing proposals, including more 
     funding for repairing and modernizing schools, increasing the 
     number of teachers, providing more money directly to states 
     through block grants, tax-free savings accounts, voucher 
     programs, and additional money for teacher education. Some 
     significant education legislation is a real possibility in 
     this Congress.
       There is strong interest in taxes. There is talk of a flat 
     tax or a national sales tax or eliminating the current tax 
     code, and, of course, a long list of tax cut proposals. But 
     it is quite clear that Congress will not enact comprehensive 
     tax reform this year.
       Expanding health care coverage for those approaching 
     retirement age and regulating HMOs will certainly be 
     seriously considered, as will child care initiatives. There 
     is also a lot of concern in Congress about values. Many bills 
     have been introduced to address this concern, including bills 
     to crack down on drunk driving, to discourage smoking, to ban 
     online gambling, and to restrict access to pornography on the 
     Internet. The values concern is also reflected in debates on 
     revamping the bankruptcy laws and even on providing new money 
     for the IMF.
       There is, of course, a lot of debate on what to do about a 
     possible federal budget surplus. Some want to return the 
     money to the taxpayers, others want to spend the money on 
     highways and bridges, others want to put the money toward 
     Social Security reform.


                               Conclusion

       Members frequently comment that the populist anger that 
     dominated the political environment in the early 1990s is on 
     the wane. We do not construe that as being a newfound, 
     overwhelming respect for Washington, but it does reflect 
     contentment with the status of the economy and a growing 
     feeling that politics is irrelevant to the lives of most 
     people. Public approval of Congress is hardly sky high but it 
     has been consistently higher in 1997 and 1998 than at most 
     times in the previous decades.
       One of the positive things about the present mood is that 
     Congress is focusing more on governance rather than simply 
     rhetoric, which marked, for example, much of the early 1995 
     period. I really do not think the American people are telling 
     us to do nothing. I think they want us to focus on the areas 
     that are very tangible to them: health care, education, child 
     care. What they are telling us is to work together and to 
     avoid producing bad legislation.
       This Congress is not going to make any big waves. But 
     Congress can do a lot in a short time when it wants to, and I 
     would expect the pace of activity in Congress to pick up in 
     the next months.

     

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