Congressional Digest covered 10 important domestic issues in 2010, from consumer financial protection to child nutrition. Some of those topics – such as Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the DREAM Act immigration bill – are still being hotly debated during the final days of the session. Here’s an update on all these issues as the 111th Conngress winds down.
The economic crisis in the fall of 2008 exposed a broken financial regulator structure. In response, Congress passed, and the President signed, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The law places new fees and limits on the Nation’s biggest banks, imposes new restrictions on the derivatives market, and establishes a new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection within the Federal Reserve, charged with regulating consumer financial products such as mortgages and credit cards.
In February 2010, President Obama signed an executive order in February 2010 creating a bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. The Commission’s report to Congress, issued December 1, lays out a plan to cut the Federal deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade. The recommendations were endorsed by 14 out of the 18 Commission members. The report is expected to be a starting point for consideration of deficit reduction measures by the 112th Congress and the White House.
Early in 2009, Congress passed, and the President signed, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — otherwise known as the economic stimulus package. According to Administration estimates, the Recovery Act has saved or created at least 3 million jobs so far. Nevertheless, unemployment has remained high nationally (at 9.8 percent in November 2010). Supporters of the tax cut proposal now under consideration in Congress, predict that a reduction in the payroll tax, along with other tax incentives contained in the measure, will act as an economic stimulus and reduce the unemployment rate by one-half to 1 percent over the next year.
In his January 2010 State of the Union address, President Obama said that he would work with Congress to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the Defense Department policy that prevents openly gay individuals from serving in the military. A Pentagon review released on November 30, 2010, concluded that about 70 percent of active duty and reserve forces had little or no problem with ending the policy. Although the House of Representatives has passed repeal legislation to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the Senate so far has failed to act. As of mid-December 2010, Senate supporters of repeal still hoped to bring the issue to a vote during the lame-duck session of Congress.
Mountaintop coal mining is heavily regulated at the State and Federal levels, due to concerns about compromised water quality, contaminated air, and permanent damage to ecosystems. In the interest of job creation, however, lawmakers have permitted and even encouraged the practice. Legislation has been introduced in Congress to eliminate it altogether, and in April 2010, the Obama Administration announced that it would impose strict new environmental guidelines. The Administration is also in the process of reviewing many previously issued mountaintop removal permits, to determine whether they are in compliance with Federal law.
The longstanding debate over the economic benefits of offshore oil drilling versus the safety risks came into sharpfocus in April 2010, when an explosion occurred in the Gulf of Mexico on a rig leased by the giant energy company BP. A series of congressional hearings and other inquiries followed. In March, after a brief freeze on new offshore drilling leases in the wake of the accident, the U.S. Interior Department announced that companies could resume exploration of the potential for drilling along the East Coast and the western coast of Florida. In December 2010, the Administration reversed itself, however, stating that it would maintain a longstanding ban on offshore oil drilling in those areas.
Campaign Finance and Free Speech
The latest round in the campaign finance debate opened in January 2010 when the Supreme Court ruled that corporations and labor unions should be allowed unlimited election expenditures. In response, campaign finance reform advocates in Congress introduced the DISCLOSE Act, requiring that top contributors to independent campaign ads be disclosed to the public. The House passed the bill in June 2010, but Senate supporters failed to achieve the 60 votes needed to avoid a Republican filibuster.
While the chemical industry has grown rapidly over the last half century, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the major Federal law regulating the manufacture, distribution, and use of chemicals, has remained essentially unchanged since its passage in 1976. Legislation was introduced in the 111th Congress calling for the establishment of a new framework to ensure that all chemical substances to which Americans are exposed would be reviewed for safety and restricted when necessary, but it never came to the floor for a vote.
With comprehensive immigration reform off the table during the midterm election year, a proposal called the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors, or DREAM, Act gained traction. The bill would provide a path to legalization for those who were brought to the United States as children without documentation. To be eligible, individuals would have to complete at least two years in a college degree program or in the armed services. The House passed the bill during the lame-duck session, but as of mid-December, the outlook still remained uncertain in the Senate, as supporters worked to round up the 60 votes necessary to prevent a filibuster by Republican opponents.
Millions of low-income children in the United States benefit from Federal nutrition programs, and millions of families receive assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Yet, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports more than 22.5 percent of all children lack consistent access to adequate food. The lame-duck Congress recently took final action on The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, to expand child nutrition programs and improve the nutritional quality of school meals. Some in Congress initially opposed the use of SNAP money to offset the cost of the program; however, when he signed the bill on December 13, President Obama stated, “I know a number of members of Congress have expressed concerns about this offset being included in the bill, and I’m committed to working with them to restore these funds in the future.”
