Congress resumed business early last month after an 11-day hiatus and took note of the to-do list President Bush outlined in his weekly radio address. That list included a war funding bill, intelligence legislation, veterans’ benefits and a free-trade pact. However, the Senate first debated the Climate Security Act sponsored by Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and John Warner (R-Va.). The bill outlined a cap-and-trade approach and would have required greenhouse-gas emissions to be cut 18 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 and nearly 70 percent by mid-century. Opponents of the bill stalled its progress through the Senate by offering non-germane amendments and having the 492-page bill read aloud by Senate clerks, a task that took nine hours. After five days, Democrats failed to obtain the 60 votes necessary to bring the bill to the floor for a vote, so it stalled and crashed. Democrat and Republican leaders blamed each other for the debacle. Proponents of global warming legislation will have to go back to the drawing board to develop a new bill for the third time in five years.

By a vote of 214-210, the House passed a $3.1 trillion budget plan, a nonbinding measure that does not go to the President but sets guidelines for future action by Congress that would have a bearing on taxes, benefit programs and the annual appropriations bills. The Senate had already passed on the measure. The House plan postpones major budget decisions and leaves the budget on autopilot until after the presidential election to allow the new president to write a budget proposal. The fiscal year for government agency appropriations ends September 30 and President Bush has vowed to veto any bill that exceeds his spending requests. That raises the question of whether this Congress will pass new appropriations bills by October 1 or wait until after the elections and the new president takes office in January. Those appropriations bills have been the nesting place for many earmark or pork amendments, and lawmakers might be content to bide their time.