Members Of Congress

WASHINGTON -- Sparing the Clinton administration for now from having to defend in court the U.S. role in the airstrikes against Yugoslavia, a federal judge dismissed yesterday a constitutional challenge by 31 members of the House.The lawmakers promised an immediate appeal of the decision by U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman.In his ruling, Friedman said the courts could not get involved unless Congress and the White House reached "a constitutional impasse" on the use of U.S. armed forces in the Kosovo crisis, and that has not happened.

WASHINGTON -- It's a wonder the substantive business of the nation gets done.It has ever been thus, although it does seem that inertia and cowardice have increased with the intense partisan polarization that characterizes modern U.S. politics.Congress is full of wimps who steadfastly refuse to face the crucial issues of the day until public demand becomes so urgent that they are forced to act.President Clinton is not much better, preferring small pleasant themes to the overarching tough issues that might actually make a historic difference in our lives.

Key votes cast by Maryland's members of Congress will not be published this week because both chambers are in recess.Pub Date: 8/11/96

Washington.--Last year, the caretakers of the Capitol blasted clean the corroding statue of "Freedom" that is perched above the imposing domed building.Today, the rest of the once-revered institution is finding itself in need of some serious cleanup and repair.Scandal has returned to the grand marble steps of the U.S. Congress with this week's indictment of Chicago Rep. Dan Rostenkowski.And although the accusations against the powerful congressman are unproven at this point, they still seem to have succeeded in confirming the public's worst suspicions about an already scarred and battered body of government.

Washington -- A report compiled by U.S. Term Limits and the National Taxpayers Union could signal the last ladle of gravy on the self-basting congressional turkey.Not content with raising their own pay and voting themselves benefits few others can enjoy, members of Congress have provided for their retirement years ''entitlements'' that are more than twice as large as any received by executives at Fortune 500 companies.The average lifetime pension for members of Congress, notes U.S. Term Limits, is now more than $1.5 million.

WASHINGTON -- A new Congress will take office tomorrow with a lot of big talk to live up to -- and the odds stacked against success.Pumped up with 25 percent new blood and a battle cry to end Washington's gridlock, the nation's fresh crop of lawmakers now has to make good where its predecessors failed on the most pressing problems: creating jobs, guaranteeing access to health care and balancing the federal books."

They still don't get it. House Speaker Thomas S. Foley continues to play childish word games about the technical definition of check bouncing. House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich continues to brag about the partisan damage to the Democrats he helped orchestrate while sluffing off as simple "errors" his $26,000 in overdrafts in the House bank. Other House members rush to the microphones to proclaim that no laws were broken. Marylanders, at least, were spared that sorry spectacle. Its delegation was relatively free of the taint.

THE AMERICAN public consistently displays tremendous support for the concept of limiting congressional terms -- nearly 70 percent in the most recent polls. Nevertheless, most members of Congress adamantly oppose the concept. They can't help themselves, because they are addicted to re-election at all costs.The Federalist Papers, written 200 years ago, predicted our modern dilemma: ". . . it is a cause for just uneasiness when we see a legislature legislating for their own interest in opposition to those of the people."

IT'S COMMONLY said around here that any time the White House or Congress wants to avoid a tough decision, one or the other appoints a commission. It's often a convenient way topush an issue off the front burner and study it to death.Occasionally,-tasting but effective medicine that both parties and the White House eventually swallowed. The dose gave the system a boost and proved not to be politically fatal to anybody, which was the idea.A more difficult test has been presented by the Base Closure and Realignment Commission established to diminish, but not remove altogether, the political heat on members of Congress on the sticky matter of shutting down military installations around the country.

WITH ALL the recent talk in Washington about sexual harassment and the need for heightened awareness and stricter laws, one thing has been left unsaid: Laws on the subject do not apply to Congress.Nor do other employment discrimination laws. Nor wage and hour laws. Nor Social Security laws.It isn't that the matter simply slipped the minds of members of Congress. The latest civil rights bill under debate in Congress would also exempt members of Congress and their staffs. So would the pending Family Leave Act, which is designed to guarantee employees unpaid time off from their jobs for circumstances such as childbirth or terminal illness.

Is Congress fiddling while America burns? That question might be worth posing to members of Congress, but very few were on hand in Washington at the end of the week to provide answers. Maybe it was superstition, but Congress took Friday the 13th off. The House was not in session. Neither was the Senate. No votes were taken. No action occurred. The seemingly relaxed pace of work is nothing new. A Monday-night-through-Thursday week in Washington frees up time for more politicking back home or fact-finding trips abroad.

Washington -- The new Congress includes, for the first time, a Muslim, two Buddhists, more Jews than Episcopalians and the highest-ranking Mormon in congressional history. Roman Catholics remain the largest single faith group in Congress, accounting for 29 percent of all members of the House and Senate, followed by Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Jews and Episcopalians. While Catholics in Congress are nearly 2-to-1 Democrats, the most lopsidedly Democratic groups are Jews and those not affiliated with any religion.

Miserly pay raise insults our troops Last week, I received a call from my 20-year-old granddaughter, who was on a bus heading for an airport in Colorado. She is in the Army and was calling to say goodbye. Her destination is Baghdad. That night, I wondered if President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney or Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld were losing any sleep worrying about a son, daughter or grandchild who is in danger. Their decisions about the war might be different if they did. The next morning, I looked at The Sun and discovered how much our Congress values these young people who are willing to die or be severely injured serving their country ("OK'd raise for military less than expected," Oct. 6)

WASHINGTON -- Congress responded to the recent corporate accounting, financial and governance scandals by imposing new legal obligations on publicly traded companies. One of the most noted provisions of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley legislation requires chief executive officers and chief financial officers to certify quarterly that they have personally reviewed their companies' earnings reports and that the financial information they contain is accurate. These certifications are considered vital in assuring the investing public that they can rely on companies' accurate, transparent reporting before they make important financial decisions.

WASHINGTON -- Join Congress, see the world. Join a congressman's staff, see more of it. Private groups, corporations or trade associations -- many with legislation that could affect them pending before Congress -- paid nearly $50 million since 2000 to send members of Congress and their staffers on at least 23,000 trips overseas and within the United States, according to a study released yesterday. The trips included at least 200 journeys to Paris and 150 to Hawaii, room rates of up to $500 a night and some high-flying on corporate jets that cost up to $25,000 a trip, according to a report by the Center for Public Integrity, American Public Media and Northwestern University's Medill News Service.

WASHINGTON -- Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay may be gone, but Congress' problems are not. It's obvious to everyone outside the coddling confines of the Washington Beltway that Congress' bad image is grounded squarely in the reality of its bad behavior - behavior that, like the image, is shared by Republicans and Democrats alike. Perceptions won't change until the facts do. Cosmetic - or, depending on your perspective, comical - half-measures such as a proposal to ban registered lobbyists from the congressional gym only reinforce the public's accurate sense that legislators live in an alternate ethical universe.

WASHINGTON -- Congress is about to overreact to media and public disdain for excessive lobbying practices by banning all privately financed congressional travel. This is tantamount to reacting to a drive-by shooting with a federal law disallowing people to drive. Lobbyist Jack Abramoff has pleaded guilty to offenses that deserved to be punished. And Congress is right to place restrictions on lobbying practices. But in a global era, when our relationships with other countries are ever more central to U.S. policy, members of Congress should be traveling more, not less.

WASHINGTON - It doesn't matter much whether you liked the budget that President Bush presented to Congress last month or didn't. The spending plan is going to be changed a lot by Congress, and, in the end, it likely will be hard to tell just what was decided. Members of Congress will push a long list of pet measures this year. But barely any of the significant proposals will pass unless they're consolidated into a few large packages known as omnibus bills. This time-honored - and increasingly used - device means that members often don't have a chance to vote on individual policies that could affect their constituents.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- The Senate Intelligence Committee has found that bad information was provided to the Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq war. Some members of Congress claim that had they known then what they know now, they would have not voted to authorize force to topple Saddam Hussein. That adage about being careful about the finger you point at others because three are pointing back at you applies here. It is Congress, not the executive branch, that fashions our intelligence apparatus, authorizes money and sets parameters beyond which information collection may not legally go. Congress should at least share equal blame with the various intelligence agencies for faulty information.

WASHINGTON - As President Bush strives to make his case against Iraq, members of Congress are struggling with the politically delicate issue of how to respond once Bush formally asks them to authorize action. Since the president pledged last week to seek a resolution from Congress before confronting Saddam Hussein, leaders have had to plan for a debate, and eventual vote, without knowing the terms, timing or possible consequences for the November elections. The White House's intensifying rhetoric on Iraq - seen at its most coordinated Sunday, when Bush's deputies appeared on news programs - has catapulted military concerns to the top of Congress' agenda.