Spending bills await delegation in D.C.

AUGUSTA – Congress goes back to work this week after the summer recess and Maine’s congressional delegation says they have a lot of work to accomplish with an election less than two months away.

“We have to deal with the report of the 9-11 commission and the spending bills,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, the senior member of the delegation. “And there are a lot of other important issues. I don’t think we should adjourn before the election until we have addressed all of the important issues. That’s the bottom line.”

U.S. Rep. Tom Allen agrees with Snowe that dealing with the legislation to implement the 9-11 commission report recommendations and the budget bills are key issues, but he doubts everything can get done.

“The Republicans in the House are quarreling with the Republicans in the Senate and so much of this key legislation is just a big question mark,” he said. “But, it should be the first priority to get the appropriations legislation done and not let it linger into next year, like we did last year.”

Last fall, Congress passed several continuing resolutions that allowed agencies to continue to spend at the previous year’s level. Those temporary spending measures continued into 2004, and, in the case of transportation funding, there never was a spending bill. The federal budget year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.

“I am afraid we will see continuing resolutions again this year,” said Sen. Susan Collins. “I would not be surprised to see a lame duck session after the election.”

Collins said funding government programs on a temporary basis causes problems to both federal agencies and the states that expect a certain level of federal funding but find it is less than planned.

“My top priority is completing the very important task of drafting legislation related to the recommendations of the 9-11 commission,” she said. “The Senate leadership has given us until the end of the month to draft legislation, so that is going to take up a lot of my time.”

Collins is chairman of the Senate Government Affairs Committee that has been assigned the lead role in developing legislation to implement the recommendations. While most lawmakers had August free, Collins chaired five public hearings in Washington and held several meetings on the commission report.

“Acting on the recommendations of the 9-11 commission has to be our top priority when we get back,” U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud said. “It is just too bad it has taken Congress and the administration three years to deal with this.”

Michaud said his own priority list has the transportation budget at the top. It has languished in a conference committee since spring. He said there are several important transportation projects for the state including the Hancock-Waldo Bridge and the east-west highway that will be decided in the conference.

“We are determined to do everything we can within our legislative powers to get drug importation legislation implemented this year,” Snowe said. “This legislation is so important to so many Americans that can’t afford the high price of prescription drugs.”

Congress has approved legislation allowing drug reimportation, but it will take effect only after Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson certifies it can be done safely. Snowe said it can be done safely and Congress needs to act now and not wait for Thompson.

“This needs to happen and it needs to happen now, “she said.

Allen said his personal priority would be to continue to press the Bush administration on the mercury issue. He said the industry wrote the proposed mercury pollution rules and they do not protect Americans.

“The EPA let the polluters write the mercury rule,” he said. “This is very important and is a matter of public health. I am going to continue to push the administration on this one.”

Collins said the appropriations bills contain most of her priority pieces of legislation. She said all the work done to secure the various specific measures in the spending bills is jeopardized by the delay in passing the legislation.

“There are spending projects specific to Maine,” she said, “and there is the jobs bill and Homeland Security funding that I have a lead role on. We have a daunting amount of legislation that we have to deal with this fall.”