WASHINGTON — They did not end the Iraq war or tackle $4-a-gallon gas.
But members of the Democratic-run Congress created programs this year to educate veterans and feed and house the poor. Democrats also cut deals with a weakened Republican president to send voters some economic help.
Their election-year strategy was to exact a steep price from President Bush for letting him have his way in some fights, while teaming with Republicans — some nervous about re-election — to defy him on other fronts.
The time for bargains is all but over.
When Congress returns in September from its five-week break, a few routine chores will dominate the agenda: renewing some tax breaks and passing a bill to keep agencies on automatic pilot until there is a new president. A second economic aid bill is a possibility; more partisan wrangling over what to do about gas prices a certainty.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called Congress’ failure to bring troops home from Iraq “probably my biggest disappointment” of the year.
Lawmakers left for their summer vacation stalemated over energy, particularly on Republicans’ desire to open the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to oil drilling. It is certain to crop up again — probably repeatedly — when they return.
They also are expected to pass a measure that has become an annual fixture to prevent millions of families from being hit with the Alternative Minimum Tax, at an average cost of $2,000 to $2,500.
Congress is under pressure, too, to extend expiring tax breaks mainly to solar, wind and other renewable energy developers, but also for teachers and families.
Before they scatter for the elections, lawmakers also have to cut a deal to keep the government running — probably into 2009.
Republicans have pledged to make their stand on offshore drilling there, but they have little appetite for being blamed for a government shutdown. So some sort of compromise is all but assured.
The “fights that await our return won’t be easy,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., on Friday. “We’ll fight if we must, but we’d much rather dance.”
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Bush chides Congress for not lifting drilling ban before summer recess
WASHINGTON — President Bush chastised Democrats on Saturday for refusing to allow a vote on lifting the federal ban on offshore oil drilling before lawmakers departed for their summer recess.
“To reduce pressure on prices, we need to increase the supply of oil, especially oil produced here at home,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. It was the fourth time last week that he called for Congress to end the drilling restrictions off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.
Bush acknowledged it would be years before any of the oil beneath the offshore waters could be pumped but said “lifting the ban would create new opportunities for American workers and businessmen.”
Congressional Democrats have argued that oil companies already have large areas of federal land and waters where they can drill for oil. The Associated Press
