Today in Washington D. C. - April 21, 2008

On The Floor: Senate reconvenes at 3 PM today. Instead of working on a supplemental troop funding bill, confirming judicial nominees, or passing the Colombia FTA, the Senate is set to take up an obscure veterans’ bill and a bill that would be a boon for trial lawyers. Reid is expected today to file cloture on the motion to proceed to a bill to reverse last year’s Ledbetter v. Goodyear Supreme Court decision (H.R. 2831). The bill would essentially remove the statute of limitations on lawsuits over wage discrimination, a clear boon for trial lawyers. When the bill passed the House last summer, House Republican Leader John Boehner described it as “a huge giveaway to [House Democrats’] loyal contributors in the trial lawyer lobby.” The White House has threatened to veto the legislation.

With respect to the delay passage of the veterans’ bill which is mostly unobjectionable and should have already have passed by Congress, Democrats have now insisted on a provision that would take money from veterans’ services in the U.S. and award pensions to Filipino veterans living in the Philippines. Tomorrow at noon, a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to a bill which would extend pension benefits to Filipino citizens who fought in the U.S. Army in World War II (S. 1315). The inclusion of this provision is certain to make passage of the bill contentious.

From News Sources: When one considers why is little getting done in the Senate, the above examples of Democrats "handling things" present good examples. Another factor in Democrats’ inability to get much done is their continuing failure to meet deadlines. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) told CQ Today in terms of passing a budget in the next couple of weeks, “I never get hung up on a specific deadline because I just don’t think that’s useful around here.” Indeed, Democrats have missed deadlines to renew FISA revisions in February, to pass an AMT fix without causing delays at the IRS by December, to complete work on the farm bill in November, and to pass appropriations bills by October, to name just a few.

When Democrats go looking for whom to blame for their lack of Congressional accomplishments, they would do well to consider their own gross mismanagement: making bills contentious that have no need to be, an ongoing desire to pander to their powerful supporters, and an inability to get anything done on time.

With regard to Pelosi's bungling in the House, The Washington Post ran a good editorial Saturday that demolishes the Democrats’ flimsy arguments against the Colombia Free Trade Agreement. The Post dismisses complaints about Colombia being a dangerous place for trade unionists, showing that such concerns don’t match the evidence. The editorial goes on to discuss importance of Colombia as a bulwark against Venezuela and concludes, “That U.S. unions, human rights groups and now Democrats would focus their criticism and advocacy on the former, to the benefit of the latter, shows how far they have departed from their own declared principles.”

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