The U.S. House of Representatives spent much of the first week back from its weeklong Fourth of July recess watching the U.S. Senate. The U.S. Senate spent much of its first week back watching the West Virginia state Legislature.Those who were taught back-in-the-day that a watched pot never boils might want to read on.
The Senate needed the West Virginia Legislature to decide the fate of the soon-to-be-appointed U.S. senator from West Virginia as to his re-election timetable before it moved on much of its constipated legislation sitting in the U.S. Senate.The Senate majority leader needs that expected 59th Democratic vote to pass the unemployment extension bill, the war supplemental, the small business lending bill, as well as other presidential agenda items.
Before the West Virginia Legislature sealed the fate for the upcoming election in November, enough GOP senators announced publicly that they would support the financial reform conference report so that at least the majority leader could move that legislation through the Senate without having to await the appointment of Sen. Byrd, D-West Virginia,to the U.S. Senate. Once Sen. Brown, R-Mass., publicly committed to vote for the legislation, Majority Leader Reid scheduled a vote which ultimately led to the passage of the most sweeping banking reform legislation in decades. The financial reform conference report passed the Senate by a 59-40 vote. The president is expected to sign this bill in a formal signing ceremony on Wednesday.
In the meantime,opponents of the legislation spent some time reminding the public that the bill fails to address any aspect of reeling-in or regulating Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. Remember, they are the giant mortgage companies with their umbilical cord still attached to the federal government in the form of a government-sponsored enterprise (GSE). This GSE was told back in the early 2000s to make loans to all walks of life and to all income levels.
Consequently, many believe these demands by Congress on Fannie/Freddie were the main cause of the financial meltdown. Because the financial reform legislation failed to address any of Fannie/Freddies shortcomings, the Senate GOP mostly voted against the conference report. Sens. Collins and Snowe, both Republicans from Maine, and the new senator from Massachusetts, Sen. Brown, voted to pass the legislation. If it weren't for those three GOP senators making their intentions known, theUnited States Senate would have spent the entire week watching the West Virginia Legislature.
The House spent the week watching and waiting for the Senate to act on either the unemployment benefits bill and/or the Iraq-Afghanistan war supplemental appropriations bill. Both of these bills will need further House action, and the funding included in both is badly overdue. The Senate GOP objects to these bills mainly because they are not paid for, and their costs are added directly onto the debt. However, once the new West Virginia senator has been sworn in, expectations are that the majority leader will ultimately cobble enough votes together to pass these additional bills.
While the House waited for further Senate action, the grumbling of House Democrats could be heard in the U.S. Senate and in the press. The Washington Post commented on the frustrations exhibited by House Democrats on the front page of the newspaper, above the fold, dated Thursday, July 15, 2010. As the article mentions, the House Democrats are frustrated with the Senate not passing many of the large spending-agenda bills requested by the president. The House Democrats are also equally frustrated with the president requesting these bills, pushing the House to pass them, but then not responding adequately to the House Democrats' requests for the president to come and defend their votes and actions on the campaign trail.
As mentioned in previous Washington Week postings, House and Senate Democrats have been asking their respective leadership to halt or slow down the scheduling of controversial agenda items since Easter of this year. However, this request is falling on mostly deaf ears in the form of the Democratic leadership.Notwithstanding the griping by a majority of members of Congress, the Democratic leadership and the president keep asking them to cast tough votes. Stay tuned to hear about the congressional agenda for next week and see if the watched pot did in fact boil over.
Elizabeth B. Letchworth is a former four-times-elected United States Senate Secretary for the majority and minority (retired). Currently she is the owner of GradeGov.com.
