As Washington pundits predicted, the change from a Republican to a Democrat majority in the Senate and the shift in leadership from Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) to Sen. Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) was not exactly the smoothest transition in congressional history. Legislative emphasis and priorities shifted from President Bush’s proposals to those favored by the Democrats, and the push for a patient’s bill of rights bill dominated Senate activities before the July 4th recess. Senate Democrats have been accused of using new committee chairmanships to slow down Bush Administration proposals on a wide range of issues–such as judicial nominees, the fairness of the death penalty, energy and so on–through a series of oversight hearings, which seems to be the sort of game politicians like to play. Lott said that Democrats are motivated by “investigating Republicans instead of legislating solutions.” The Democrats have had the majority only since June 6 and there is probably a good bit more give and take to come.
• The House Appropriations Committee approved the fiscal 2002 transportation appropriations bill that allocates $13.3 billion for the FAA. Of that amount, $6.9 billion would fund FAA operations, $5.5 billion of which is for air traffic services in fiscal 2002. The Airport and Airway Trust Fund will cover nearly $5.8 billion of the operations budget with the balance coming from the general fund of the U.S. Treasury. The proposed budget would allocate $32.9 million for regulation and certification funding (an amount that is less than a 5-percent increase over fiscal 2001 and $21 million shy of what the administration requested).
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