Congress needs to be laboring—Happy Labor Day!
Congress comes back this
week from their month long August recess to a pile of legislation that needs
their immediate attention. This week the Congress will hear an address by the
President to a joint session of Congress and on the same day, Thursday, the President
will unveil his "jobs bill". The President announced his intention to
craft a jobs bill just before he went on his August vacation. His bill is aimed
at putting people back to work after August became one of the most dismal
unemployment months in over a year with about 14 million people officially
unemployed in August. Almost 43% or almost 6 million of them have been out of
work for longer than six months.
The Congress also faces the
out of control debt that is supposed to be tackled by the Super-Congress debt
committee that was created by Congress just before they took off for their
month long recess. The SC meets for the first time on Thursday but most believe
the first meeting of the 12 lawmakers will be filled with photo op sessions and
long winded opening statements. Meanwhile, legislation stacks up in the Senate
and House like planes trying to land at Reagan National Airport.
September looks busy with
the following legislative bills awaiting Congressional action:
FAA extension which expires Sept. 16. This Federal Aviation agency has been
operating under 21 short-term extensions since 2008.
Intelligence authorization expires
Sept. 30. This bill authorizes programs for the CIA, NSA, DIA and other
intelligence agencies and has been operating on various short and long term
extensions for the last couple of years.
Federal Flood Insurance
expires Sept. 30 and given the August hurricane Irene and tropical storm Lee,
there will be efforts to extend the national flood insurance program. The House
and Senate are at odds over how much to increase premiums for homeowners. This
federal program has relied on short term extensions since 2008 and the program
has accumulated about $18 Billion in debt.
The Federal Gas tax expires
Sept. 30. This is the 18 cent per gallon tax we all pay at the gas pump when we
fill up our vehicles. This program has been extended 7 times and brings in
about $100 million dollars per day to our federal treasury.
Since Congress has once
again failed to enact a single appropriations bill that funds all of our
federal agencies and departments, a continuing resolution will have to be
crafted and passed by Sept. 30. Funding levels will have to be negotiated and
the twelve individual bills that are supposed to be passed by Congress each
year will have to be "married" into the one-big omnibus continuing
resolution.
So much more lies ahead for
Congress past the month of September but this writer
thought it best to concentrate on the month at hand so as to not overwhelm
readers with all of the unfinished business that Congress faces.
Labor Day is a celebration
of the American worker. Thank a worker when you see him or her on the job and
those working, be thankful for the job.
Stay tuned for more on Congress.
Elizabeth B. Letchworth is a retired, elected United States Senate
Secretary for the Majority and Minority. Currently she is a senior legislative
adviser for Covington & Burling, LLC and is the founder of GradeGov.com
