WASHINGTON : Congress Faces Slew of Business- and Finance-Related Issues in New Year

This past year--the Year of the Budget--will be a tough act to follow.

Congress has yet to settle on the subject for its next donnybrook, but there are several candidates. And general patterns seem to have emerged already--big guys versus little guys, to reregulate or deregulate, to bail out or not to bail out and at what cost to whom.

Here is a list--it’s the season for this sort of thing--of legislation that some Washington insiders expect to become priority items in the next Congress and among regulatory agencies in 1991. Like most other things in this town, sudden changes are possible and even probable. And if fighting breaks out in the Persian Gulf, all bets are off on the agenda in Congress.

Because budget talks dominated the end of the last session of Congress, there are more than the usual number of holdover bills. Many business-related measures that died in those final days, such as family and medical leave, lender liability, and junk fax, will undoubtedly be resurrected.

* At the top of every list is a major overhaul of the banking industry. The Bush Administration would like the reform to include a repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which has restricted the financial activities of banks since the Depression. But the chairmen of the Senate and House banking committees said they will make deposit-insurance reform a top priority.

“The whole question of the strength of the bank insurance fund has got to be faced and dealt with,” said Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

Losses to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s fund from bank failures are expected to hit $5 billion in 1991, even worse than 1990’s $4 billion. Congress will be searching for ways to strengthen the dwindling fund without using taxpayer money while banks will be fighting higher premiums at a time of depressed profits.

Some change in the FDIC’s insurance coverage is anticipated, though the $100,000 insured limit may remain. Instead, there will probably be some tinkering with the way rules now allow people to hold multiple insured accounts.

Riegle has proposed limiting individuals to one insured account at each savings institution. His House counterpart, Banking Committee Chairman Henry B. Gonzalez (D-Tex.), believes that a person should be restricted to three insured accounts--individual, business and retirement.

Another powerful player, Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), has promised to weigh in on banking reform if the securities restrictions on banks are altered. “If you allow banks into securities, you have to create a fire wall to prevent failure in securities from wiping out savings and sticking the taxpayer with another huge tab,” said a staff member of Dingell’s Energy and Commerce Committee. “We look at this situation and see great peril. We will try to build enough protections so there won’t be another savings and loan fiasco.”

* Along similar lines, both the Senate and House are likely to conduct hearings in 1991 on the growing problem of failures in the insurance industry. The industry and its critics are sharply divided on the need for new laws to protect consumers, and the debate is expected to be a hot one.

* The huge government-securities market is the next target of Rep. Edward J. Markey’s campaign to strengthen securities laws. The Massachusetts Democrat hopes to extend and expand the Government Securities Act, which expires next fall.

The law, which requires dealers in government securities to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission, was passed in 1986 after the failure of several securities dealers who had engaged in shady practices. Although the act also gave the Treasury Department authority to issue rules on record-keeping, it did not provide authority to issue rules governing sales practices. That’s a loophole that Markey would like to fill.

The main investors in the $225-billion-a-year market are huge pension funds and insurance companies. But municipal officials in small towns and cities, as well as private individuals, also get involved and, Markey feels, need some added protection.

A 1990 report by the General Accounting Office said the same type of anti-fraud rules that govern sales practices in other securities should be applied to government securities “because there are similar opportunities for abuse.”

* Congressional scrutiny of the Resolution Trust Corp. and its disposition of millions of dollars in assets from failed thrifts is likely to intensify. The agency is charged both with minimizing the cost of the failures to taxpayers, by getting the most for the assets it sells, and with creating home-ownership opportunities for families with low and moderate incomes.

Insiders say there is a sentiment in some sectors of Congress that these two goals are incompatible and that thousands of properties are sitting fallow because the RTC is not making enough effort on behalf of home ownership. The result may be a move to restructure the whole process.

* The public is in for another round in the match between the Baby Bells and the remainder of the media and information industry over efforts to further deregulate the telecommunications business.

The cable industry, networks, newspaper publishers and Hollywood studios are concerned about potential anti-competitive behavior if the shackles are loosened on the powerful phone companies. But the Bell companies argue that they need more freedom to compete in the international marketplace.

* Dingell has come out in support of adding strong new recycling provisions to the reauthorization of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. He plans hearings on the development of new markets for recycled products as part of the effort to encourage new reuse and recycling.

The burgeoning waste disposal industry will be involved deeply in any attempts to craft new rules.

* Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton), expected to be the incoming chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, will continue hearings on alternate energy sources. They should get a new impetus as a result of the Persian Gulf crisis. Last year, Brown spearheaded efforts to establish a three-year national program to study hydrogen as an alternative to fossil fuels.

* Building on groundwork laid in the last session, the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee will take up national health insurance with an eye toward establishing programs for the long-term care of the elderly and crisis insurance for the seriously ill.

* Civil penalties for violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act were increased in 1990 for the first time in 20 years to catch up with inflation. The Senate Labor Committee is expected to move to the possibility of increasing criminal penalties for violating OSHA regulations.