Christmas in July

For Congress-critters, it's Christmas in July.
 
It’s an election year. There’s also squabbling between Republican lawmakers over what should be voted on. So a lot of bills are still bottled up.

Not to worry, Congress has another sneaky way to get things passed (or 'past' you). They’re called ‘riders.’

These are items that have nothing to do with the bill being debated. Congressmen can simply add their pet project to a bill that’s sure to pass and it rides the wave right into law. Congress still has to pass a bunch of bills to pay the bills that keep government up and running. Since they want to run home to run for re-election, those bills are almost sure to pass. Those are the bills picking up a lot of riders.

Dan Morgan points out how popular it is right now in a Washington Post article.

He points to a portion of a $143 billion dollar bill to keep three cabinet departments running after October 1st. The House Appropriations Committee was zeroed in on a part that would spend money on teaching disabled kids and helping schools in poor neighborhoods.

Not the kind of things politicians would vote against.

So a handful of Congressmen decided to slap on their ‘riders.’ Suddenly the committee was bogged down debating abortion, the definition of overtime pay, and how to send checks to Mexican citizens who’d paid into Social Security.

None of these things has to do with disabled kids or poor schools – in case you didn’t notice.
Rep. David R. Obey (D-WI), in perhaps one of the most eloquent summations in Congress in recent years, declared the rush to add riders was turning the bill into "a garbage dump" for things best left to other committees.

This sort of thing is slowing down Congress even as Congress is running out of time. The Congressional Budget Office says some of the things that still have to be debated and paid for include the Coast Guard and the FBI.

You’d figure funding the Coast Guard and FBI would be important, what with the country on a chartreuse or mauve or egg-shell-white terror alert and all.