OpEdNews - Article: Senate Has Become Graveyard of Congress

OpEdNews - Article: Senate Has Become Graveyard of Congress

The U.S. Senate has become the graveyard of Congress! Dozens of bills passed by the House of Representatives--to improve the health, safety and economic well-being of Americans--are locked up in the Senate month after month.

This was not always the case. In the sixties and seventies, legislation affecting consumers, workers and the environment often started in the Senate and was sent to the House in the hope that that body would not weaken or defeat these bills.

Committee chairs like Senators Warren Magnuson, Gaylord Nelson, and Walter Mondale would move legislation after great public hearings open to the citizenry. Auto safety, product safety, meat and poultry inspection, gas pipeline safety in the late sixties, followed by the sweeping air and water pollution control bills in the early seventies, were examples of Senatorial initiatives.

Today, the Senate lies paralyzed even as it is controlled by 59 Democrats--usually enough for comfortable passage of legislation sought by a majority party that also controls the presidency ....