Trashing a Timetable

The first session of the 100th Congress may be remembered for just about everything but passing legislation. The summer was dominated by the Iran- contra hearings. The fall will be dominated by consideration of President Reagan’s nomination of Robert H. Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court. And the rest of the year has been devoted mostly to filibusters, threats of vetoes and various forms of political posturing for the 1988 elections.

Progress on real legislation? Not much since early in the year, when Congress passed two major measures over presidential vetoes: the highway and mass-transit legislation and the renewal of the Clean Water Act. Congress also authorized more than $1 billion in aid to the homeless in fiscal years 1987 and 1988, and approved a recapitalization of the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp.

By the original timetable, Congress hoped to return to work from its summer recess this week and spend maybe one more month in session. But the hoped-for Indian-summer adjournment may not come until after the first snow flies. Adjournment before Thanksgiving may even be optimistic.

The reasons for stalemate are varied. The House, with its big Democratic majority, has worked rather efficiently under new Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.), having passed nine of 13 required appropriations bills for the next fiscal year. But the Senate, with a 54-46 Democratic margin, has passed none. All federal spending may well be lumped into one massive continuing resolution again this year. This is not a good way to legislate.

The Senate, anxious to take the initiative on a new domestic agenda that it could present to voters in 1988, got off to quick start last winter under its new Democratic majority, but Republicans quickly reverted to filibuster and other tactics to thwart the Democratic programs. The GOP consistently has refused to allow a vote on campaign-reform legislation and a defense authorization bill that would limit testing of the Strategic Defense Initiative.

The White House is anxious to demonstrate that Reagan is not a lame duck, and the President is bound to purse his lips and hang tough on taxes, spending and a variety of other issues while he pushes some old agenda items of his own--even though they are certain not to pass. The White House clearly believes that the President will gain politically from the Bork nomination and that Democrats wil be hurt if Bork is rejected or if confirmation is unduly delayed. The prospect of a tough nomination fight has energized the President’s conservative base.

Constant confrontation may fill some inner needs of the confrontationists, but it does not get the nation’s business done or generate any respect or political points for either side. The President said in August that he was willing to work with Congress on some issues, and there was a glimmer of hope to that end in the short-lived Reagan-Wright Central American peace initiative. The White House and congressional leaders should meet to decide if there are some issues that can be worked out with reasonable compromise, perhaps including a budget and a plan for catastrophic health insurance. Then they can battle to the end on the others. Whatever route is taken, this definitely is a time for lowered expectations.