Norman Ornstein: The Lame-Duck Session
[Norman Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.]
...Congress is back, and one thing is obvious: There is no way they can complete the amount of work they have left before the November election. They still need to pass most of the spending bills for a fiscal year that starts in less than three weeks. On top of that, they must deal with energy; the small business tax-incentive plan; the new Obama “don’t call it a stimulus” stimulus package, which includes business investment tax cuts; child nutrition and food safety; the plan to aid stricken 9/11 workers; the START treaty; and the Big Enchilada: expiration of the Bush tax cuts. With Democrats determined to get on the campaign trail ASAP and the GOP still in obstruction mode, only a fraction of these tasks will actually be accomplished. So we're likely to end up with a dreaded lame-duck session....
The lame-duck session of the Ninety-Third Congress, after the Watergate election, approved the nomination of Nelson Rockefeller to be vice president, gave the president broad trade-negotiating authority, passed a continuing resolution to substitute for several appropriations bills that had not passed, established federal energy research and development policy, and enacted, over the vetoes of President Ford, a vocational rehabilitation bill and amendments to the Freedom of Information Act. The lame duck after the 1982 election was acrimonious and partisan, but Congress managed to pass a number of delayed appropriations bills, an increase in the gasoline tax, and a pay raise for itself. The post-1994 election lame duck was focused on one thing, passage of a major trade bill to implement the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), done on a bipartisan basis. And we can add the lame-duck session after the 1998 elections, when House Republicans reconvened to impeach President Clinton....
Read entire article at The New Republic
...Congress is back, and one thing is obvious: There is no way they can complete the amount of work they have left before the November election. They still need to pass most of the spending bills for a fiscal year that starts in less than three weeks. On top of that, they must deal with energy; the small business tax-incentive plan; the new Obama “don’t call it a stimulus” stimulus package, which includes business investment tax cuts; child nutrition and food safety; the plan to aid stricken 9/11 workers; the START treaty; and the Big Enchilada: expiration of the Bush tax cuts. With Democrats determined to get on the campaign trail ASAP and the GOP still in obstruction mode, only a fraction of these tasks will actually be accomplished. So we're likely to end up with a dreaded lame-duck session....
The lame-duck session of the Ninety-Third Congress, after the Watergate election, approved the nomination of Nelson Rockefeller to be vice president, gave the president broad trade-negotiating authority, passed a continuing resolution to substitute for several appropriations bills that had not passed, established federal energy research and development policy, and enacted, over the vetoes of President Ford, a vocational rehabilitation bill and amendments to the Freedom of Information Act. The lame duck after the 1982 election was acrimonious and partisan, but Congress managed to pass a number of delayed appropriations bills, an increase in the gasoline tax, and a pay raise for itself. The post-1994 election lame duck was focused on one thing, passage of a major trade bill to implement the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), done on a bipartisan basis. And we can add the lame-duck session after the 1998 elections, when House Republicans reconvened to impeach President Clinton....