The Senate spent the week debating the financial reform bill and overwhelmingly passed the Boxer amendment by a vote of 96 to 1.
This is the amendmentthat was discussed in last week's column which, in a nutshell, takes the taxpayer off the hook for paying for any more financial bailouts. This sounds great on paper and obviously sounded great to 96 U.S. senators.
However, the anxiety it is causing is bubbling up all over the country and, for that matter, the world. You see, it provides that financial companies pony up money that would be used to pay for any financial meltdown in the future. The problem with this is that financial companies can be small mom and pop "pay day" loan stores, small-town credit unions or maybe even thelocal orthodontist allowing monthly payments.
This is being discussed and analyzed by financial lawyers throughout the halls of Congress. Anxiety also erupted overseas with big market investors.
When they got the word that the Boxer amendment had been passed, they began to getnervous about investing inour markets, since now they are under the impression that the federal government will not back our financial markets if they fail in another crisis.
The Secretary of the Treasury had to make numerous calls to overseas "fat cats" to calm many nerves. It seems amazing to this writer that this current Congress keeps causing "unintended consequences" that have the potential to really harm, and they plead complete innocence when these "consequences" emerge.
The Senate will be back debating this bill Monday and hopes to conclude it by week's end. Obviously much clean-up will be needed before this bill should ever see the desk of our President for his signature.
On the House side of the Capitol, before members left for the week, the House debated and passed the "cash for caulkers" bill by a vote of 246 to 166.
Thislegislation calls for anew two-year program to be administered through the U.S. Energy department that will allow up to $3,000 in rebates to homeowners who conduct whole-home energy audits or hire certain licensed contractors to make energy-efficient improvements, including adding insulation, and installing energy-efficient water heaters, windows and the like. These contractors must belicensed under theBPI (Building Performance Institute), North American Technician Excellence and/or the Laborers' International Union of North America.
The bill also is not available to homeowners with annual incomes of more than $250,000. As the bill was being debated, Congressman Joe Barton (R-TX) was able to get language included stipulating that if the bill has a negative net effect on the national deficit, it will not go into effect. In other words, the Barton language requires Congress to pay for the bill if it wants the program to go into effect. This bill now makes its way to the Senate side of the Capitol.
Most Hill watchers believe there will be a strong effort to add the "cash for caulkers" bill to the unemployment insurance extension bill that will come up before Memorial Day. This may sound great to those supporting this energy rebate bill, but the unemployment extension bill is always deemed an "emergency designation" by Congress.
This emergency designation allows Congress to sidestep its responsibility for paying for the cost of the bill.
Assuming Congressdesignates the upcoming unemployment extension bill an emergency, then Barton's efforts to have the "cash for caulkers" bill paid in full will be all for naught.
This writer is guessing that during the upcoming debate on the unemployment bill, a GOP senator will try to remove the emergency designation so thatCongress will have to pay for thecostassociated with the bill.
However, if the past is any indication, that effort will failand the $6 billion price tag for the "cash for caulkers" bill will be added on top of our already exploding debt.
Stay tuned.
Elizabeth B. Letchworth is a retired, four-times-elected United States Senate secretary for the Majority and Minority. She is the founder of GradeGov.com.
