Rob Portman, October 28, 2002

This has been a busy year in Washington, with debates on many important issues including the economy, terrorism and Iraq. Many important laws have been enacted, including new corporate accountability standards, landmark education reforms, new Trade Promotion Authority for the President and more help for our military in the war against terrorism. Still, while Congress was able to make progress on several fronts, there were far too many issues that were left unaddressed due to inaction by the United States Senate.

The most important responsibility of the federal government is to ensure the safety of our nation and its citizens. That is why, in June, President Bush proposed reorganizing the federal government to create a new Department of Homeland Security to better coordinate efforts to defend our nation from terrorist threats.

The House held hearings and drafted bipartisan legislation similar to the President’s proposal. It passed the House by a vote of 295 to 132 three months ago, in late July. Unfortunately, the leadership in the Senate did not see the same urgency. Even now, five months after the President’s proposal and three months after the House acted, the Senate leadership continues to stall on the bill. The dispute is over government union issues. Incredibly, the Senate leadership is insisting that the President should have less national security authority at the Department of Homeland Security than he does at every other federal agency. They want the Department of Homeland Security to be the only federal agency where the President does not have the authority to exclude some employees from union collective bargaining in the event that national security requires it. This is particularly disturbing because the President’s proposal and the House legislation make it clear that unions would be part of the new Department. Currently, only one in four of the federal employees going into the new Department are represented by unions, yet this issue has blocked action. The result is that we are all more vulnerable to terrorism.

Another issue that is critical to so many Americans is retirement security. In the wake of the Enron collapse, workers were reminded just how insecure their retirement nest egg might be. In response, the House passed the Pension Security Act, based on legislation I authored. This common-sense approach empowers workers with new diversification rights so that they would no longer be forced to hold onto corporate stock in their 401(k) or other pension. It would also give workers new rights to information about their plan and greater access to sound retirement savings advice. While the House passed this legislation in April, the Senate leadership has never even brought similar legislation to the Senate floor for a debate.

One issue that is causing a great deal of difficulty for our seniors is the rising cost of prescription drugs. So in June, the House passed legislation that would create a new, voluntary Medicare prescription drug benefit program. By using group buying power, the plan would immediately lower drug costs for all seniors. And the plan includes special coverage for low-income seniors, ensuring that no senior will ever have to choose between buying food and buying medicine. But once again, while the House passed a bill that would greatly benefit seniors, the Senate leadership has not even been able to pass a Medicare prescription drug benefit.

In addition to homeland security, retirement security and prescription drugs, the Senate leadership left town without moving forward on a ban on human cloning, the President’s faith-based initiative, or even a bill that would reauthorize the landmark welfare reform bill of five years ago -- all bills the House passed. The American people expect Congress to address these and other issues important to them. I hope that in the coming year, we can break the logjam and do the people’s work.

Congressman Rob Portman represents Ohio's Second Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives.