The Do-Nothing (but politics) House

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Politico:

The do-nothing (but politics) House

By JONATHAN ALLEN & JAKE SHERMAN | 5/14/10 4:11 AM EDT

A routine science competitiveness bill may have crystallized what the House chamber has become at this moment in a frightening political cycle for Democrats: little more than an election-year staging ground.

Over two days, Democrats turned the ho-hum America Competes bill into a 54-amendment marathon — allowing vulnerable incumbents to sponsor dozens of feel-good amendments to tout back home.

Exhausted from a brutal 16-month stretch that produced a health care law, stimulus funding and a climate change bill, House Democrats seem worn out. They’ve clipped their workweek to a 42-hour period from Tuesday evening to midday Thursday, sprinkling a light schedule with long debates on noncontroversial bills that could easily pass without a formal vote. The five-day workweek is long gone.

So they’re left with less substance and more politically convenient amendments.

During Thursday’s debate on the competitiveness bill, John Boccieri of Ohio added $50 million to a manufacturing program; Martin Heinrich of New Mexico tried to make his home state’s federal labs eligible for “innovation” funding; and Loretta Sanchez of California brought school administrators into the fold on the president’s advisory council on science and technology. The three Democratic lawmakers — and several others who offered similar amendments — just happen to be facing tough reelection races.

Democrats say they’re just waiting for the Senate to start moving the pile of legislation that’s stacked up on its doorstep, and, with little of substance left on the agenda, they’re letting their members go home to prepare for the November election.

“We’re getting to the end of the year; there are only so many remaining ships out of town to highlight members’ work,” said a lawmaker familiar with the Democratic leadership’s strategy.

It’s not that there’s nothing big left for the House to do — the budget, annual appropriations bills and war funding bills haven’t moved much. It’s just that there’s little appetite among Democrats to have a fight on any more controversial issues before they face the voters.

Thus, simple bills that pass with little debate — a post office naming here, an honor for the late Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell there — are filling the schedule.

It’s not a new tactic. Both parties over the years have allowed politically vulnerable members to co-sponsor bills that would help them back home. And throughout congressional history, the House has often raced through its legislative agenda only to find idle time while the Senate plodded.

Democrats have used this strategy on other bills this year.

Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Mich.), who won with 49 percent of the vote in 2008, added waterways in the Great Lakes region into the definition of “estuaries” under the Clean Water Act during consideration of a water bill last month. It was adopted by voice vote.