WHEN Members of Congress finally head home for the holidays they will have ended the busiest legislative session in the last 14 years; both houses convened during 1995 for three months more than last year. How is the show being received? Well, even without thunderous applause for the Act I Contract with America, and despite the intermission in Act II’s balanced-budget act, the House Republican leadership is already scripting an encore for its exhausted troupe.
Much depends on whether a deal is reached with President Clinton on the budget. If so, veteran Members and the freshman ingenues alike believe they can look forward to a more measured pace of activity next year. Congressional Republicans will be focusing on implementing the budget provisions. But 1996 being a presidential election year, they will also be timing their debates and floor votes on new issues to cause maximum discomfort for candidate Clinton. Without a budget deal, however, the arguments over Medicare, tax cuts, welfare reform, and Medicaid will remain at the center of congressional politics—and of the presidential race. Deal or no deal, next year promises to be every bit as contentious as this year has been.
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