The Congressional recess is ending and Congress will be back in session. No one knows how long it will stay in session before it adjourns for the elections nor does anyone know if there will be a lame duck session. Unfortunately, many Americans don't care. There is much work to be done. To begin with, there are 13 appropriation bills that must pass the House and Senate and be signed by the President. Under the Constitution, the House must initiate all appropriation bills. Only a few of these have reached the President's desk, with the rest in various stages of completion. If all appropriation bills are not passed before Congress adjourns, Congress must pass what is called a "CR" or a Continuing Resolution. The Continuing Resolution says that all programs will be funded at last year's level. This is a stopgap measure which allows the government to function when Congress has not been able to finish all appropriation bills. The Continuing Resolution applies only in those areas where the President has not signed an appropriation bill. There is little chance that all 13 appropriation bills will be finished before adjournment. When finished, there will be a deficit. The only question is how large of a deficit we will have. Most estimate the deficit will be around $100 billion dollars. The vast majority of the deficit results from additional defense and homeland security spending.

There are several measures that are high profile and will be vigorously debated. The first is the Homeland Security Bill which passed the House and is in the Senate. In the Senate, the bill has become subject to a power struggle between committee chairmen over jurisdiction. All Senators believe he or she should be President and react strongly when they are threatened with a loss of power. This is an intramural skirmish that is most important to those inside the beltway, especially to lobbyists who have worked the Senators and the committee staffs for years. There are several issues in the legislation that must be resolved. One involves the rights of workers being transferred into the new agency. The President and Republicans would like more leeway in getting rid of people who are security risks or are not doing their job. The Democrats feel that the normal civil service process should apply which means that it may take years to get rid of an employee who is not performing up to standard. There is also concern over which agencies should be in the new department and why some agencies such as the FBI and CIA have been left out. The original idea was to get the bill to the President by September 11th, which would be the most appropriate day for him to sign the legislation. This is not going to happen. It is my guess that this bill will be passed in early October. Not to do so would be a political disaster for the party perceived to be holding it up. Furthermore, there is the potential that the terrorists might strike on September 11th or some other time in the fall. With the Senate and House nearly equally divided, neither party can afford to make a major mistake. Not passing this bill before adjournment would be a major mistake. This is one issue, unlike the economy, where the Democrats are more vulnerable than the Republicans are.

Lou Frey represented Central Florida in the U. S. Congress from 1969 to 1979. In his last election, he received 78% of the vote. He was elected one of five Republican leaders in the House of Representatives during the 93^rd and 94^th Congress. He served on...