Delegation: Gridlock, bickering tripping up Congress

AUGUSTA – Maine’s congressional delegation believes this month will see more gridlock and raucous disagreements with several measures affecting the state that may or may not be resolved before Congress adjourns so members can campaign.

“There is no question that the major and most central issue before us will be energy,” said Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine. “Fully funding low-income fuel assistance is certainly going to be the highest of priorities for me.”

She said a broader energy package that continues tax credits for alternative energy sources also needs to be adopted, but she cautioned the partisanship and gridlock that dominated Congress earlier this year will be difficult to overcome. She said that when Mainers have asked her during the August recess why the gridlock continues, she has been at a loss to explain why.

“It is a good question, but I do not have a good answer, a rational answer to give,” Snowe said. “I regret that I have to answer my constituents with that answer. There is just too much of the ‘my way or the highway’ attitude on both sides of the political aisle.”

She said that lawmakers in both parties may “pay the price” at the polls in November because voters expect members of Congress to work together to develop solutions, not bicker and fail to compromise.

“Whether Congress can pass a bill to appropriate LIHEAP [Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program] at the level that it should be funded remains to be seen,” said 2nd District Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Maine. “We have all of the appropriations bills we are supposed to deal with, as well as an energy package and we have such a short time to deal with all of it.”

Even though the Congress is scheduled to adjourn Sept. 26, Michaud believes they will stay in session into the first few days of October.

“But it is a presidential election year and there will be tremendous pressure to just pass a continuing resolution, and that has to be a concern,” he said.

A continuing resolution usually provides funding at the same level as in the previous budget year, and Michaud said that would be “a disaster” for Maine because that amount of funding would buy about half as much oil as it did last winter.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted against the August recess because she fears the short amount of time Congress plans on meeting will force the use of a continuing resolution and delay passing budget bills until a lame duck session after the election, or a delay until the new Congress meets in January.

“Not a single one of the appropriations bills has cleared yet,” she said. “And the start of the new fiscal year is October 1st. There is an awful lot of work to do in the month of September.”

Collins said an energy package alone will take a tremendous amount of work and could have been completed in August. She shares the concern that a continuing resolution could shortchange the LIHEAP program, and believes there will be an effort to provide for funding LIHEAP funding in the energy package.

“There is a bipartisan effort under way to get a package that will have the votes to pass,” she said. “I don’t like everything that is in it, but I think it can serve as the framework for a bill that can pass.”

First District Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, believes the battle this month will be over providing needed increases in programs such as LIHEAP in a continuing resolution, because the Senate will continue in a partisan gridlock.

“George Bush doesn’t compromise and therefore we are better off just doing a continuing resolution and allowing that to carry us into early next year and then when we have a new president that we are able to work with we can get the appropriations bills done,” he said.

Allen pointed out the current budget was not completed by Congress until February of this year. He said lawmakers may be able to reach agreement on defense spending and the Veterans Affairs budget, but even that is far from certain.

“Lots of issues don’t get resolved when the Senate is tied,” he said, “and when you have a Democratic House and Republican president. That is why this election is so important – the voters have to decide which party they want to lead and break the tie.”