Congress: After a year, Democrats make limited strides
They probed contractors' role in Iraq and US attorney firings, but had setbacks on spending and changing the war's course.
By Gail Russell Chaddock | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the December 21, 2007 edition
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Washington - Democrats wound down the first half of the 110th Congress this week claiming they had made a "down payment" on the "new direction" they promised America when they took control of the House and Senate this year.
Results this year include the first minimum wage increase in 10 years, the biggest hike in college aid since the GI bill, lobby and ethics reform, and an energy policy overhaul that leverages conservation.
Although the signature issues of the new majority – changing course in the Iraq war and pledging to pay for all new spending and tax cuts – hit major setbacks this week, Democrats are quietly shifting the agenda on Capitol Hill on issues ranging from oversight to domestic priorities.
"Although the way the Democrats are going out is not pretty, the most significant thing that's happened is the resurgence of oversight," says Norman Ornstein, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. "That means not just 'gotcha' stuff, although it does include a very significant amount of investigative work. It's also genuine oversight of programs and agencies, and a significant part of it is coming in a bipartisan fashion."
Congressional probes into the firing of eight US attorneys last year helped force the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this year. Oversight of the war in Iraq, including the role of private contractors, ramped up considerably under Democratic control of Congress.
"Republicans didn't do enough oversight of the war. It didn't take much for Democrats to do better," says eight-term Rep. Michael Castle (R) of Delaware.
In the final standoff with the White House this week over funding for fiscal year 2008, Democrats backed off their goal of $22 billion in additional spending and largely accepted the President Bush's spending caps. But they also reworked spending requests to reflect their own domestic priorities. This included $767 million more than the president requested for K-12 education, $1.7 billion more for Pell Grants for college costs, $607 million more for medical research, $1.2 billion for local law enforcement, and $1 billion to make bridges safer.
But these victories were eclipsed by big losses on top priorities of the new majority. Congress wound down the year with votes to give Mr. Bush $70 billion in war funding, without conditions, and to shield at least 22 million taxpayers from the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), without finding the $50 billion to pay for it.
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