Debt limit, intelligence reform next for Congress

WASHINGTON – Come January, all eyes will fall on the newly elected Congress, in which Republicans will have more muscle in both the House and the Senate, and where the much-lauded sentiments of bipartisanship will be put to the test.

But before that happens, the current Congress will return on Tuesday to take care of unfinished business, from keeping the government funded to revamping the nation’s intelligence community.

Among the few items that Congress will have to take up is a measure extending the federal debt limit by about $690 billion , an issue that Rep. Tom Allen said he and fellow Democrats would emphasize as an example of how President Bush has handled the economy.

Speaking about the fact that Bush began his term with a budget surplus, Allen said, “They chose to squander that opportunity with two huge tax cuts.”

Sen. Olympia Snowe, who expressed disappointment in having to return to Washington for a lame-duck session, said that both Congress and the president must do a better job of taking care of the government’s bottom line.

“In January, the Congress, working in concert with the administration, must actively engage in determining ways to reduce our budget deficits and debt by examining our spending and revenue priorities,” she said. “Fiscal responsibility is something we all must live by – not just individuals, but our government as well.”

The spending bills that will keep the government running after Nov. 20 will be rolled into one “omnibus” bill or perhaps a few smaller comprehensive bills.

So far only bills relating to the military and homeland security have passed.

On the Senate side, Sen. Susan Collins and Snowe are pushing for several projects that would affect the Bangor area.

As part of $7.7 million total for salmon conservation in Maine, they include $2 million for a Penobscot River restoration project for salmon conservation and $1 million for the University of Maine to study climate change, according to Collins’ staff. Also proposed is a $250,000 allotment to buy land for the Penobscot Landing waterfront project in Brewer.

Allen said he had made several appropriations requests, but expressed frustration that the Republicans, who control the House, likely wouldn’t let Democrats know what’s in the final appropriations bill until the day before it’s voted on.

It’s a political reality that most people don’t understand, he said. “That’s not the process you read about in college.”

Congress also will vote on the intelligence reform legislation, if House and Senate negotiators can reach a compromise by the beginning of the week.

Though Collins’ version passed the Senate last month by a near unanimous vote, some House negotiators have been unwilling to back off their version, despite recent concessions from the Senate side.

Collins said on Tuesday that she had just learned that Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, had nixed the Senate’s latest proposal.

“That’s very disappointing,” said Collins, who added that she had been in touch with National Security Adviser Dr. Condoleezza Rice, who said Monday the White House wanted a compromise. According to Collins, the White House has proposed new language in the hopes of finding compromise between the two bodies.

Other items remain undone, such as the president’s controversial energy bill and an overhaul of the nation’s laws regarding class action lawsuits and could be reintroduced in the next Congress.

Though lame-duck sessions deal with fairly routine leftover issues such as appropriations, treaties and other administrative tasks, Senate historian Donald Ritchie said that some of the more colorful examples of political theater have taken place in lame-duck sessions, such as Bill Clinton’s impeachment in 1998.

The Department of Homeland Security was created during the last lame-duck session in 2002. Anti-communist zealot Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin was reprimanded by Congress in a December 1954 session.

Ritchie also said that lame-duck sessions can be used to one party’s benefit, or not, depending on how advantageous it may be to wait until the new Congress arrives.

“People look over their shoulders,” he said, and make plans “to cooperate or obstruct under the circumstances.”