This post will be quite a bit shorter than its predecessor. The pace of bill introduction has slowed down as the bodies of Congress start holding scheduled hearings and votes, generally working through the sausage-grinding where bills become ever more onerous laws (in most cases.)
As far as the local Congressmen go, the bills I alluded to in my last post (H.R. 16 for Rep. Wayne Gilchrest and three for Rep. Mike Castle – H.R. 96, H.R. 97, and H.R. 334) all continue to languish in committee, with no action in the last month. But I do have three votes of interest that were recorded by the duo.
One of these was on H. Con. Res. 63 and served as the gateway to my post on the Long War. It’s the one where Wayne Gilchrest voted to cut and run (in essence) – shamefully Delaware’s Mike Castle was another “white flag Republican” that voted for the resolution. They were also in the large majority in voting for H.R. 976, the “Small Business Tax Relief Act” that passed 360-45. I read the bill and I STILL don’t understand it because it’s not in the context of the regulations it affects. (At least Maryland shows the current law!) The reason I note this is that the 45 who voted “no” are among the most conservative in the House and I’m wondering what the objection was.
On the other hand, both Castle and Gilchrest properly voted against the (so-called) Employee Free Choice Act, H.R. 800. It passed the House 246-182, but the pressure will be on these “moderates” to change their votes against EFCA and override a threatened veto by President Bush.
Maryland’s two Senators didn’t have a lot of work to show for themselves on the THOMAS website over the last month. Last week Senator Cardin introduced a trio of amendments to the 9/11 Commission recommendation adoption act (S. 4) that dealt with the National Capital Region and amending Amtrak rules, all are under consideration. For her part, Senator Mikulski’s earlier bill (S. 414, the “Cloned Food Labeling Act”) and a newer bill (S. 624, which deals with reauthorizing an act for early detection of breast and cervical cancer) are both still parked in committee.
Delaware’s Senator Joe Biden also introduced two amendments to S. 4 in the last week. S.A. 306 deals with materials shipped in “high hazard” corridors and is just additional regulation. I’m more worried about S.A. 284 myself.
S.A. 284 (to S. 4) would create the “Homeland Security and Neighborhood Safety Trust Fund” to the tune of $53.3 billion for FY 08-12. And how would this fund come up with the scratch? “(B)y reducing scheduled and existing income tax reductions enacted since taxable year 2001 with respect to the taxable incomes of taxpayers in excess of $1,000,000, and…appropriat(ing) an amount equal to such revenues to the Homeland Security and Neighborhood Safety Trust Fund.” In governmentese, soaking the rich by reducing the Bush tax cuts that have kept our economy strong. (And I don’t want to hear this class envy bullshit, the top 1% already shoulder over 1/3 of the tax burden.)
Even better, the amendment only actually allocates $3.5 billion of this fund, the other $50 billion or so is left undertermined at this time. (The pertinent part is in the upper left of the linked page.)
Just like last month, it’s no surprise that the four Democrats stuck together on votes (when Biden actually showed up, he missed a few in the last month.) The only exception came on voting to table S.A. 289, yet another amendment to S. 4. (The amendment was sponsored by Sen. Rangel and involved checking every piece of cargo coming into our ports – a herculean task.) Senator Carper voted with the Republicans to table the amendment while the other three voted to keep the amendment alive (S.A. 298 was tabled 58-38.)
So it was a fairly slow month in Congress compared to January – however, action’s getting hot and heavy in Maryland’s General Assembly. I’ll look at that later today.
