CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING
NEWS OF THE WEEK (|)C[rdBÉR|26, |20b2|-|ErJI7]E[j) ËYlJÀNJCÉ llONG & JANET 3. DOlDtt 1
GOVERNMENT
UNFINISHEI D BUSINESS Congress left a trail of stalled bills that it will take up in a laime-duck session • Ν A J U S T - E N D E D LEGISLATIVE
1 session marked by fierce parti1 san bickering, Congress left be hind a knee-deep pile of unfin ished business as it departed the Capitol for the campaign trail. These stalled bills —some of which may to be brought up in the lame-duck session beginning Nov 12—mask the mound of signifi cant legislation the 107th Con gress actually managed to produce. Major achievements include en actment of $ 1.35 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years, education reforms, changes to campaign finance law and corporate accounting stan dards, fast-track presidential trade negotiation authority, and antiterrorism initiatives. Congress also gave President George W Bush the authority to wage war in Af ghanistan and use military force against Iraq. But Congress hit roadblocks on a variety of health care issues, tension protection, extension of the 1996 welfare reform law, en ergy legislation, and creation of a new Department of Homeland Security It was able to pass ap]Dropriations bills for the Defense Department and military con struction, both signed into law by the President, but it got side tracked on 11 other spending bills needed to keep the government running. These urifinished spending bills will have to be handled during the lame-duck session, perhaps through an omnibus spending res olution, or passed over to the next Congress via another continuing resolution when the current one expires on Nov 22. Ifthe latter ocHTTP: //PUBS. ACS.ORG/CEN
curs, spending would be held to fiscal 2002 budget levels. The Republican-controlled House passed a bill creating a Homeland Security Department largely along the lines requested by President Bush. But the Senate— in possibly its most contentious dis pute—wrangled bitterly over the formation of the department. President Bush asked for— and the House gave him—broad au thority to hire, fire, and reassign the 170,000 employees whose 22 agencies and offices would form the new department. But the Sen ate deadlocked over this issue. Senate Republicans want to give the President the ability to bypass the collective-bargaining rights of workers. Senate Dem ocrats argue that the President already has that authority in times of national security crises. "Republicans, in many cases, do not want the homeland secu rity bill," Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) says. He also says they are trying to bust federal workers' unions. Senate Minority Leader Tirent Lott (R-Miss.) in turn argues t h a t D e m o c r a t s are "paying more attention to bureaucratic security than they are to home land security." James M. Lindsay, a senior for eign policy fellow at the Brook ings Institution, believes that leg islation creating the department may be squeezed out by what he calls must-pass appropriations bills. He gives the bill less than a 50-50 chance of passage, "in part because for both sides of the aisle, the Department of Homeland
Security loses much of its politi cal importance once the Novem ber elections" take place. The lame-duck Congress also could take up other measures— including an energy bill—that got caught up in pre-election jockey ing. Since late June, a conference committee has been trying to reach a compromise on two very different energy bills passed by the House and Senate. The House version, along the lines of the Bush Administration's energy plan, has a pro-fossil-fuel accent. The Senate version has far fewer provisions supporting oil and gas interests. Whether the conference com mittee can reach an acceptable compromise is unclear. Many key issues remain unresolved. Among them are provisions affecting elec tricity supply and utility restruc turing, providing tax incentives for increased energy production, and aiding ethanol producers. The outcome of the elections may determine how quickly con ference deliberations advance. Ii the Senate changes hands, some members may want to postpone energy legislation until the next session, believing they will get a better deal from a Republicancontrolled Senate.-LOI S EMBER C&EN
S PARRINGlnthe e rid, Daschle (left) and Lott found common 9 round on the Iraq w ar resolution and e ducation but are far a part on homeland s
