National Journal articles from December 2000

National Journal archives from December 2000

IF GORE LOSES, HE NEEDS TO BE MORE THAN MAGNANIMOUS.
December 2, 2000... It was wrong of Al Gore and his Democrats to unleash an army of lawyers on Florida to suppress the absentee ballots of military, personnel, wrong of the Vice President to allow his supporters to play the race card, wrong of the party leadership...

BUSH VS. GORE: A FIRST DRAFT FOR THE JUSTICES TO CONSIDER.
December 2, 2000... Dear Mr. Chief Justice: I offer below a first draft of an opinion for your consideration. It stresses that no court has the constitutional power to pass final judgment on a dispute over who won a presidential election and that the Florida...

THE BATTLE IN FLORIDA HEATS UP. ALSO THE PLANET.
December 2, 2000... Allow me to distract you from the constitutional crisis that George W. Bush and Al Gore seem intent on creating, and direct your attention to a subject that some would say is even more important. As in Florida, although perhaps with more...

Florida Times 50.
December 2, 2000... THE FLORIDA RECOUNT NIGHTMARE COULD BE REPEATED IN ANY OF THE 50 STATES. LOCAL ELECTION PRACTICES ARE INCONSISTENT, REFORMS SLOW, FUNDS SHORT, AND POLITICAL WILL LACKING. In the days (and now weeks) since Election Day, state elections...

THE STATES VOTE.
December 2, 2000... This table shows how the 50 states administer elections, count votes, and accommodate absentees. Under the "Voting Method" column, electronic refers to touch-screen or other kinds of computers, optical refers to scanners that read ballots...

Figuring Out Freeh.
December 2, 2000... DESPITE A STRING OF CONTROVERSIES, HE HAS SURVIVED AND THE FBI HAS EXTENDED ITS REACH. On Sept. 26, the combined Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees gaveled to order an inquiry into the collapse of the case against espionage...

Big Bucks, Tiny State.
December 2, 2000... THE SENATE RACE IN DELAWARE WAS A CASE STUDY IN THIS YEAR'S RECORD-BREAKING SPENDING ON POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS. Nobody is haggling over the number of people who elected Gov. Thomas R. Carper of Delaware to the Senate on Nov. 7. There have been...

THE ODDS AGAINST LOTT.
December 2, 2000... In these strange political times, one leader in Washington must feel even more uneasy than the others. He'll probably do his damnedest to project confidence, but don't be fooled. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., has such a tenuous...

Hill People.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2000... Senate Claire M. Heffernan, a two-time former aide to Sen. Christopher S. "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., is the new vice president of government relations for the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association. The group's headquarters are in Research...

LONE STAR ALLIES.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2000... Tom DeLay, Dick Armey, and George W. Bush: Is this the beginning of a beautiful friendship? Throughout his presidential campaign, Bush went out of his way to distance himself from his party's congressional wing, particularly the...

TESTING THE FEDERAL DEATH PENALTY.
December 2, 2000... On Dec. 12, Juan Raul Garza, a convicted drug kingpin and three-time murderer from Texas, is scheduled to be executed. But Garza will not die in the Texas death chamber in Huntsville, and his final plea is not being made to Gov. George W. Bush....

AFTER GORE AND BUSH DIALED 911.
December 2, 2000... Since Election Day, Peter S. Knight, Vice President Al Gore's top fund-raiser and a senior campaign strategist, has devoted many, many hours to daily conference calls to help coordinate the post-campaign campaign. Little wonder, given the...

GAY GROUP SEEKS DENIED RITES.
December 2, 2000... Mel White and several hundred gay-rights activists, 1960s civil rights veterans, and self-styled Gandhians made their way to Washington in mid-November with churchgoing on their minds. Not worshiping, but protesting, which they did for two days...

CALLING ON THE ACADEMY.
December 2, 2000... Scientific and political controversies over genetically altered foods, federal environmental regulations, and massive government ecological restoration projects have brought boom times to the National Academy of Sciences. Established as an...

A COLLEGE IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE.
December 2, 2000... Through the 1980s and much of the 1990s, the future for the nation's historically black colleges and universities looked pretty bleak. At least 10 such schools had closed since 1975, and others were deep in crisis. At Central State University...

TIDAL WAVE? DON'T BET ON IT.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2000... Sooner or later, the tide will turn. It's the working assumption of media folk everywhere because this, we believe, is how political crises work. There's a standoff over some difficult, polarizing question; then there's a dramatic turning...

THE PLANE TRUTH HURTS, MR. PRESIDENT.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2000... The DC-3 "Gooney Bird," the transport plane that changed the world, hangs proudly from the white-pipe rafters of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington. Its silvery face has reason to smirk at the dilemma the new...

A NOT-TOO-BAD LEGACY.
December 2, 2000... Rarely has a U.S. Trade Representative accomplished so much and received so little credit as has Charlene Barshefsky. She was, after all, the negotiator of the China trade deal that exceeded everyone's expectations and the architect of historic...

Hotline Extra.
December 2, 2000... Well, He Has to 110 Something A lot of people "in this political silly season" believe New York City's next mayor will be Bill Clinton, recording to the New York Post's Neil Travis. And while some "laughed" at the idea of it Sen. Hillary...

LOOK FOR COMMITTEE RATIOS TO SET A TONE.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2000... For the next few days, much of the attention in Washington will be on the courts--both the U.S. Supreme Court and the state courts in Florida--as they decide what to do about Florida's election results. Far less attention will be paid to...

CLOSE DOWN THAT COLLEGE!(Brief Article)
December 2, 2000... In the wake of the Florida vote fiasco, we're certain to hear calls for uniform voting procedures, more-dependable voting machines, clearer standards for counting and recounting ballots, and clearer state and local election laws. But there...

Poll Track.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2000... * Taking Stock LEADERS ANONYMOUS With almost all downballot races decided, control of Congress remains, however tenuously, in Republican hands. Although there is a shortage of recent polling numbers on the folks at the other end of...

People.
December 2, 2000... Techno-File There are two new faces at the Washington office of VeriSign/Network Solutions, a provider of Internet security and Web identity technology. Miriam Sapiro, 40, the new director of international policy, comes from the White...

WHY AL'S LOSING THE SPIN WAR.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2000... Democrats see this fight over the presidential election as impeachment, Part Two, with Republicans trying to bully them into submission. The Democrats beat back the GOP onslaught once. Can they do it again? President Clinton survived...

KATHERINE HARRIS, KINGMAKER.(Florida Secretary of State)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2000... HER INITIAL DECISIONS MAY HAVE COST AL GORE THE PRESIDENCY. In retrospect, it is now easy to see how events, often involving Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, conspired to put Al Gore in a deep hole in his fight to overtake...

Poll Track.(White House 2000)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2000... White House 2000 MIXED FEELINGS As the battle over the presidential election headed into its fourth week, Americans were growing increasingly polarized in their perceptions of the candidates. In a recent CBS News-New York Times poll,...

People.(lobbyists)
December 9, 2000... At the Bar Senior Justice Department official and public-interest lawyer William B. Schultz, 52, is joining the exodus to the private sector and will start at the law firm of Zuckerman Spaeder in January. As deputy assistant attorney...

NICE PROCESS IN FLORIDA. TOO BAD ABOUT THE CANDIDATES.
December 9, 2000... The first week after the election, I was tickled. Wow, I thought. Unprecedented! History in the making! What fun. The public, meanwhile, said: yawn. Call us when you've sorted it out. The second week, I was panicked. My God, I thought. It's...

The Road Ahead.(the new presidency)
December 9, 2000... THE DIFFICULT TASK OF GOVERNING WOULD REQUIRE A PRESIDENT BUSH TO REACH OUT TO DEMOCRATS AND PERSUADE HARD-LINE REPUBLICANS TO GIVE HIM ROOM TO MANEUVER. Now George W. Bush has to start thinking about the hard stuff. Even if he doesn't...

WHAT BUSH COULD ACCOMPLISH.
December 9, 2000... A LOOK AT SIX ISSUE AREAS WHERE BUSH COULD MAKE SOME HEADWAY AS PRESIDENT. What would George W. Bush be able to accomplish as President? Some of his campaign pledges, such as his plan to partially privatize Social Security in a dramatic...

Battling for Benefits.(female veterans)
December 9, 2000... THE FIGHT HAS BEEN LONG, BUT THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS, CONGRESS, AND THE WHITE HOUSE FINALLY ARE PAYING ATTENTION TO THE SPECIAL NEEDS OF THE GROWING NUMBERS OF WOMEN MILITARY VETERANS. Women have formally served in the United...

What Ails Medicaid.
December 9, 2000... INTEREST GROUPS ARE PUSHING A PLAN TO EXPAND MEDICAID TO COVER MORE OF THE UNINSURED. BUT THE PROGRAM MAY NEED MENDING FIRST. As the number of uninsured Americans hovers around 43 million, a coalition of diverse interest groups, including...

IN SEARCH OF PLAN B.(transition planning; job seekers - post-election 2000)
December 9, 2000... This was the week a dark thought started to seriously sink in around the Democratic hallways of the federal government: That next job is probably, ahem, not coming from Al Gore. Granted, some political appointees are in defiant denial, refusing...

WHAT THE FARMERS FACE.(Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman)(Interview)
December 9, 2000... Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, who was appointed to his position in late 1994, is the longest-serving head of the Agriculture Department since Orville Freeman presided over the department for a full eight years between 1961 and 1969, under...

SOFT MONEY CURBS, REVISITED.
December 9, 2000... In the 2000 campaign's closing weeks, Democrats unleashed a powerful weapon that had been in short supply. With the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee raking in a record $42 million in "soft money" this election cycle, the DSCC sponsored...

A POOL ACCIDENT'S CHILLING EFFECT.(trade association legal liability)(Meneely vs. National Spa and Pool Institute)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2000... The National Spa and Pool Institute may be about to take a legal bath. Its error was to endorse, 41 years ago, a design standard intended to make backyard pools safer. That endorsement led a Washington state jury to impose a $6.6 million...

FROM THE K STREET CORRIDOR.(lobbying news)
December 9, 2000... Native Americans Take Control The Cherokee Nation has decided to hang out its own shingle in the nation's capital. Tribal council members voted in late November to open a lobbying office, citing a desire for tribal members to represent...

OCEANFRONT PARCEL; ANY OFFER WELCOME.(Rockaway Beach, New York)
December 9, 2000... ROCKAWAY BEACH, N.Y.--To confront the mystery of how this remote corner of the Big Apple has missed the economic boom that's touched even the South Bronx and Bedford-Stuyvesant, step up on the boardwalk and face into the wind. It is...

ONLINE PHARMACIES: WILL CONGRESS ACT?(Brief Article)
December 9, 2000... Supporters of regulating pharmaceutical sales on the Internet made important headway in Congress this fall as key lawmakers lined up behind a proposal to crack down on illicit sales on the Web. But it's uncertain whether the momentum will carry...

BEYOND ARGUMENT.(around-the-clock television and the election stalemate)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2000... ON THE MEDIA The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that "the all-day cable news networks have been wallowing in the Florida recount story," and that they're motivated mainly by ratings. And this was undeniably true. "The Circus...

CAPITOL CHAOS.
December 9, 2000... In a Congress that has been marked by chaos and confusion, this week took the cake. During a White House meeting on Monday, congressional leaders pledged a quick lame-duck session, but by Thursday, the federal budget wasn't much closer to being...

Hill People.
December 9, 2000... House After a year and a half on the staff of Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, D-Pa., Sharla M. Barklind has left Capitol Hill to become assistant general counsel for the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. At NARUC, which...

STILL WAITING FOR THE INTERNET IMPACT.(Web use in political campaigns)
December 9, 2000... According to experts in the art of high-tech campaigning, Web strategies used by presidential and congressional candidates in the 2000 elections were not as effective as they could have been. Although Internet politicking produced innovative...

HOW OUR MUDDLE IS PLAYING ABROAD.(2000 U.S. presidential election)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2000... BRUSSELS, Belgium--Europeans are viewing the battle over the 2000 U.S. presidential election with an interesting combination of fascination, bemusement, and alarm. Even before the election, they knew infinitely more about our political process...

Hotline Extra.(politics - briefs)
December 9, 2000... Washington Capital How do you solve a problem like Maria? Recount. A statewide recount in Washington state's Senate race found that former Democratic Rep. Maria Cantwell defeated Republican incumbent Slade Gorton by 2,229 votes, even...

TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR GORE.(Florida vote count)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2000... Florida fatigue is setting in. And that's bad news for Al Gore, whose whole post-election campaign is based on the premise that he really won Florida and only needs enough time to recount the votes to prove it. But the voters may not give him...

A SHOT IN THE ARM.(healthcare crisis)(Brief Article)
December 9, 2000... With healthcare spending in the United States expected to exceed $1 trillion this year, and more than 44 million Americans still living without health insurance, it is an understatement to say that we have a healthcare crisis on our hands. ...

A FOND LOOK AT THE NAGGING RIDDLE OF AL GORE.
December 9, 2000... In the early 1980s, I came to Washington to cover the capital for a newspaper in my home state of California. Because that newspaper, the San Jose Mercury News, is in the heart of the Silicon Valley, I found myself gravitating to an ambitious...

NO EXIT: HOW THE SUPREME COURT BOXED GORE IN.
December 9, 2000... "The U.S. Supreme Court was fairly neutral and may have been slightly favorable to us." --Al Gore, Dec. 5, 2000 "Since [an 1887 act of Congress] contains a principle of federal law that would assure finality of the State's...

A Holiday Wish List.(improving education)(Brief Article)
December 16, 2000... As I write this, the holiday spirit reigns. The streets are filled with festive lights and evergreens; bell-ringing Santas are collecting money for charity; and the toys donated for poor children are being wrapped and distributed. In the...

AFTER ALL THE ACRIMONY, THE ELECTION ENDS ON GRACE NOTES.
December 16, 2000... During the nerve-racking 36-day Election Recount 2000, rational-minded Americans sought comfort, as they did during President Clinton's polarizing impeachment saga, in the thought that this painful partisan drama had an upside: It turned the...

THE SUPREME COURT--AND OTHERS--FLUB THE CHALLENGE.(recount of 2000 presidential election)
December 16, 2000... "If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable." --Louis D. Brandeis, 1912 A bitter, 5-4 ideological split. (Or was it 7-2? Or 5-2-2? Or 3 plus 2 to 2 plus 2?) Six separate opinions. A rushed, latenight...

WANT CLARITY? THE NEW ECONOMY IS STARTING TO SHOW ITS AGE.
December 16, 2000... In the annals of political commentary, has there ever been a season like this for speaking too soon? I think I will wait until George W. Bush's inauguration before predicting with any confidence that he will be the next President. But this...

Disunity for All.(2000 election)
December 16, 2000... IN EVERY POLITICAL ARENA--THE WHITE HOUSE, CAPITOL HILL, THE STATEHOUSES--THE COUNTRY'S ALLEGIANCES ARE SPLIT DOWN THE MIDDLE. DEMOGRAPHY AND THE MELTING POT ARE SPREADING OUR DIVISIONS NATIONWIDE. Jim Pierce is a retired AFL-CIO organizer...

COMPLICATIONS HE NEVER IMAGINED.(President-elect George W. Bush)(Brief Article)
December 16, 2000... But pleasures are like poppies spread, You seize the flower, its bloom is shed; Or, like the snow-fall in the river, A moment white, then melts forever. --Robert Burns The nature of his narrow Electoral College victory' may leave...

Looking to the Middle.(US Congress)
December 16, 2000... CONGRESSIONAL CENTRISTS ARE GUSHING THAT THEIR WAY IS THE KEY TO BREAKING THROUGH WASHINGTON'S GRIDLOCK NEXT YEAR. BUT CAN THEY DELIVER? Twenty-six Senators gathered in a nondescript room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Dec. 6 for...

Promise Unrealized.(Pres Bill Clinton's policy on race)
December 16, 2000... HE PROTECTED AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, HAD A RAIN BOW ADMINISTRATION, AND SPOKE MOVINGLY ABOUT RACIAL JUSTICE; YET BLACKS FEEL THAT BILL CLINTON OFTEN WAS AN UNDERACHIEVER ON RACE. On Jan. 20, 1993, hours before being sworn in as the 42nd...

SLOUCHING TOWARD ADJOURNMENT.(106th Congress)
December 16, 2000... Sen. Ted Stevens' choice of ties had probably never been more appropriate. Emerging from a Senate Republican caucus meeting on Tuesday afternoon, the Appropriations Committee chairman, who usually sports an Incredible Hulk tie when he's feeling...

THE SENATE CANDIDATE WHO CALLED IT EVEN.(Washington Senator-elect Maria Cantwell)
December 16, 2000... Sen.-elect Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was not the star of the Dec. 6 dog-and-pony show hosted by Senate Democrats to introduce their nine newly elected members. That honor went to Sen.-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who did her best to...

WHO'S THE BOSS?(House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee)(Brief Article)
December 16, 2000... Forget about the 50-50 split in the Senate. And never c mind future fights over the new President's legislative agenda. For Washingtonians involved in transportation policy, the most compelling drama during the 107th Congress may be the looming...

Hill People.(Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.)(Brief Article)
December 16, 2000... House Scott M. Brenner, who has been a spokesman for Rep. Bud Shuster, R-Pa., for the past three years, is leaving the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. (Because of term limits, Shuster must relinquish the committee...

NO WAY TO RUN A RAILROAD?(Amtrak )
December 16, 2000... Last month, Amtrak put on quite a show to celebrate the maiden voyage of its new high-speed train, the Acela Express. It hosted a send-off breakfast inside Washington's Union Station. It hired a brass band. And it assembled a Who's Who of...

MOBILIZING FOR A WELFARE DEBATE.
December 16, 2000... Four years after Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, better known as welfare reform, both Republicans and Democrats hail the legislation as one of the most important policy success stories of the 1990s. In...

STRANGE TO BEHOLD: A SUBDUED K STREET.(House Commerce Committee chairman candidates)
December 16, 2000... As a fight rages on between two entrenched Republicans for leadership of the House Commerce Committee, oddly enough the proxy battle on K Street is relatively quiet, insiders say. The high-stakes chairmanship contest--a long-running affair...

FROM THE K STREET CORRIDOR.(Brief Article)
December 16, 2000... Spencer to Michigan: Adios Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., who (after getting the boot on Election Day) is considered a prime prospect to .join a potential Bush Cabinet, is also being courted by several K Street firms. Abraham has had...

POLL TRACK.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 16, 2000... Views on politics * The Media CREDIBILITY GAP The networks botched their election calls in Florida more than a month ago, and Americans remain concerned about inaccuracies in news reporting, according to a Gallup Poll. Sixty-five...

U.S. AIR FORCES IN EUROPE: BUSY AND STRAINED.(Interview)
December 16, 2000... RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany--The United States Air Forces in Europe, a command often called USAFE, is perhaps best-known for its heroism in throwing a lifeline to isolated West Germans during the 1948 Berlin Airlift. Today, this major U.S....

A MEDAL DELAYED; AN AIRMAN HONORED.
December 16, 2000... DAYTON, Ohio--Relegated to the very back rows of the Air Force Museum during a Medal of Honor ceremony here on Dec. 8, the Army survivors of the battle fought back the tears. They had seen with their own eyes the heroic deeds that the Air Force...

IMAGE-POOR.(Brief Article)
December 16, 2000... ON THE MEDIA The story, had everything we dream about: high stakes, giant egos, real ideas, and naked power-lust. So enormous were its strengths, and so irresistible was its energy, that nobody even noticed the one flaw, although it's been...

Hotline Extra.
December 16, 2000... Who's at the Helms? Some of North Carolina's leading political figures "are beginning to give serious thought to running" for the Senate in 2002, but none of them know vet whether Republican incumbent Jesse Helms will seek re-election....

CALIFORNIA IS GOP NO MAN'S LAND.(Brief Article)
December 16, 2000... In July 1999, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush visited Silicon Valley's ground zero, raised $850,000, and vowed to carry the state. Bush went on to raise more than $6 million from Silicon Valley during his campaign--the most...

IT'S WAY TOO EARLY TO PREDICT GRIDLOCK.(Brief Article)
December 16, 2000... In a Zen rock garden in ancient Kyoto's Ryoanji Temple in Japan, 15 large rocks are seemingly randomly scattered on a bed of white pebbles, which is bordered on three sides by walls and on one side by a viewing area. No matter where visitors...

A NOT-SO-SUPREME COURT.(Brief Article)
December 16, 2000... Did the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority really think that, by "remanding" the vote recount controversy to the Florida Supreme Court for an impossible remedy, it could paper over its blatant political decision to deny Al Gore's last...

People.
December 16, 2000... Corporate Life Alvin B. Jackson, director of legislative affairs at The Boeing Co. since 1995, in January joins Bergner, Bockorny, the Washington-based lobbying firm that represents Boeing. "I'm ready to move from the corporate world to a...

AN ELECTION--AND MUCH MORE--LOST.(Brief Article)
December 16, 2000... The damage from the Florida fiasco is widespread and serious. Nobody comes out of this with an enhanced reputation. The U.S. electoral system is being held up to ridicule. A French television producer remarked: "We made fun of the Ivory...

WHY THE FLORIDA RECOUNT WAS EGREGIOUSLY ONE-SIDED.
December 23, 2000... Most of the attacks on the U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 ruling on Dec. 12 halting Florida's statewide manual recount have proceeded from the assumption that the Florida Supreme Court had acted reasonably--or at least defensibly--in its stunning,...

VOUCHERS: A LIBERAL PLOT TO DESTROY PRIVATE SCHOOLS.
December 23, 2000... Mr. William H. Gates Chairman and Chief Software Architect Microsoft Corp. Dear Bill: Since it is unlikely you will ever read this letter, I can be blunt. Yon have more money than is good for you. You've said that you want to give...

Lessons From Kosovo.
December 23, 2000... OPERATION JOINT GUARDIAN HAS BECOME A REAL-WORLD TEST OF WHAT WORKS, AND WHAT DOESN'T, IN PEACEKEEPING AND NATION-BUILDING. GNJILANE, Kosovo--As a four-man patrol of U.S. peacekeepers shuffles in the early-morning cold at Camp Monteith,...

BALKANS OUTLOOK.
December 23, 2000... DEMOCRACY TAKES HOLD IN ALL PARTS OF TH E FORMER YUGOSLAVIA. EUROPEANS ARE BEARING MORE OF THE PEACEKEEPING BURDEN. BUT A LONG ROAD TO STABILITY LIES AHEAD. When international officials met in Dayton, Ohio, in mid-November for the fifth...

Peacekeepers' Progress.
December 23, 2000... A DECADE OF PEACEKEEPING HAS TRANSFORMED THE U.S. MILITARY. AND MUCH OF THE CHANGE IS FOR THE GOOD. GEORGE W. BUSH, TAKE NOTE. The remarkable odyssey of the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit in the spring and summer of 1999 reveals how the...

REFORMING THE BLUE HELMETS.
December 23, 2000... AFTER A DECADE OF TRAGEDIES, THE UNITED NATIONS WANTS A STRONGER AND LESS IMPARTIAL PEACEKEEPING FORCE. BUT WILL ANYONE LET THE WORLD BODY HAVE IT? When some 8,700 United Nations peacekeepers arrived in the chaotic capital of Sierra Leone...

Taxing Times.
December 23, 2000... NEW LEADERS ARE TAKING OVER AT THE HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS AND SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEES, BUT CAN THEY RESTORE THE POWER THAT HASSLIPPED AWAY? Sen. Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, wasted no time preparing to take over as the new chairman of the...

REPUBLICAN ROADBLOCKS TO IMMIGRATION REFORM.
December 23, 2000... In the scramble to include an immigration compromise in the 106th Congress's session-ending omnibus spending bill, advocates for the agriculture industry learned the hard way that Washington's much-heralded new era of bipartisan cooperation had...

LEGISLATIVE SESSION WRAP-UP.
December 23, 2000... The Congress that Wouldn't Sine Die OVERVIEW Only one thing in Washington lasted longer than the 2000 presidential election: the 106th Congress. Despite starting early in the spring on the budget resolution, Congress demonstrated new...