Word: 98th
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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WHEN Sen. Howard H. Baker Jr. (R-Tenn) waved goodbye to his colleagues at the close of Congress' 98th session two weeks ago, the Senate laid aside its rule against applause to give the Majority Leader a standing ovation. Retiring to pursue a full-time Presidential bid, the 18-year veteran left behind him a record of good-humored and effective leadership in the maelstrom that is Senate politics...
...wake, the 98th Congress left a helter-skelter of dead bills. Among the principal casualties was a long-overdue reform of the nation's immigration laws, the Simpson-Mazzoli bill. Also abandoned was a civil rights measure that restated the intent of Congress, in the aftermath of a contrary Supreme Court ruling, to deny all federal funds to entire institutions, rather than just to the offending department or program, if discrimination is practiced. Killed, too, was a bill to renew and increase financing of the superfund program under which Washington helps states and localities clean up toxic-waste dumps...
...catch-all $460 billion "continuing resolution" to fund the Government for a whole year. So Congress gave itself another extension until Tuesday of this week, when the legislators will have to return to deal with the measure. Barring a presidential veto, which would force still another session, the 98th Congress will then pass into history, leaving a two-year record that might charitably be called undistinguished...
...closing chaos was a fitting fade-out for the 98th Congress. Its finest hour was its first; almost as soon as it convened in early 1983, it passed a bipartisan pack age of tax and benefit changes urgently needed to save the Social Security system from bankruptcy. But from there on, bickering between the Republican White House and Senate and the Democratic House blocked most positive accomplishments, an unhappy augury of what might be expected in the next two years if voters maintain that same power alignment...
...tongue-lashing was a better indication of what the President can expect from Congress this year than was the applause he got later that evening. Like Reagan's speech, the second session of the 98th Congress is likely to be remembered more for rhetoric than substance. The lawmakers are slated to convene for only 29 weeks, and most Congressmen will spend more time on the campaign trail than at the Capitol. On the House and Senate floors, political posturing will take precedence over legislating...