Some good and bad news from Congress before the August recess.

The good news:

Bipartisan bills were introduced before the August recess in both the House and Senate that would provide $6 billion in badly needed additional state fiscal relief over the coming year. However, the September schedule will probably be too full (and money too tight) to expect that Congress will act on them then. For more, see brief descriptions of S 2671 and HR 4961. Along with states, cities are facing difficult times and cutbacks in essential services. For more on this issue, largely being ignored by the presidential campaigns, see A War Against the Cities, an editorial by Bob Herbert which ran in the NY Times on July 30, 2004.

The bad news:

Also just before Congress recessed for August, Sen. Hatch introduced a companion (S. 2752) to Rep. Hensarling's budget process bill. The Hensarling bill includes an extreme "cap" or limit on entitlement spending, tight discretionary caps, and other harmful budget process changes. See a short summary of the Hensarling bill by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

These budget process bills are also unlikely to move soon, despite their importance to so many Americans. Programs including healthcare, nutrition, childcare and child welfare, veterans benefits, and education may be saddled with crippling caps on entitlements and discretionary spending. See Congressional Record pages S8737and S8738 for the text of Sen. Hatch's introduction of the bill.