One of the first items the new session of the Senate will vote on will be S 8, the vaguely named "Returning Government to the American People Act." The bill, which has already been placed in the Senate calendar and is thus eligible for action on the floor of the Senate, is a placeholder for a broad new Democratic effort to review, and then reverse, many of the regulations the Bush administration instituted during its final weeks. These include regulations such as a "conscience clause" allowing health care workers broad latitude to deny certain medications and procedures on the grounds of religious beliefs (read here: medications and procedures related to reproductive rights).
These and other right-wing landmines are being laid to help trip up the new administration, and progressive governance. Rooting out these last-minute regulations would be a great way to start cleaning up the mess left by the Bush administration. As part of that effort, S 8 reads (more in the extended entry):
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It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the Bush Administration should not rush into effect major new controversial regulations in its closing days;
(2) the incoming Administration, working with the Congress, should review and, if appropriate revise or reject such `midnight regulations'; and
(3) if legislation is necessary to ensure the new Administration has this opportunity, that Congress should enact, and the President should sign, such legislation.
Now, there are good reasons to be dubious of any legislation that merely expresses a "sense of Congress," as such pieces of legislation are often just empty gestures that accomplish nothing. However, a source on the matter indicates that S 8 is only the beginning of the process, not the end. In this light, S 8 is merely the starting point of a broad effort to review all regulations put in place by the Bush administration during its final weeks. Thus, the upcoming vote on S 8 actually will have a useful purpose: providing a baseline of support in the Senate for this process. If there are any conservative Democrats who are opposed to this effort, or any Republicans receptive to the idea, the upcoming vote on S 8 will let us know.
There is already a House version of S 8, introduced by Representative Gerald Nadler. It is HR 34, and, unlike S 8, it is a fleshed out piece of legislation, rather than just a shell. This bill nicely compliments the commission proposed by John Conyers to investigate Bush administration crimes. Further, both bills have been referred to the judiciary committee (one of the four committees to with the Conyers bill was referred). As such, I would like to start our progressive legislation monitoring project with both HR 34 (the Nadler bill) and HR 104 (the Conyers bill). Both work on cleaning up the mess left by the Bush administration.
One roadblock on this front is that the judiciary committee does not have its new members up yet, and we won't be able to develop a baseline of committee support for either bill until it does. In fact, most committees have not announced their new member lists yet, and it will be difficult for us to proceed with this project until they do. If anyone can assist in finding complete House committee member lists, it would be of great help. |
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