While Congress likes to tackle such high-profile issues as tax cuts or military pay raises, one of Washington's dirty little secrets is that in many cases, lawmakers increasingly tend to neglect routine reauthorization bills for federal programs. These programs stay in existence only because Congress each year waives the budget rules and provides another 365 days of funding, using the 13 must-pass appropriations bills. The consequence of all of this is increasingly poor congressional oversight over federal programs. Moreover, the annual congressional appropriations process gets bogged down in debates over controversial legislative issues that the authorizing committees of jurisdiction are supposed to deal with separately. The committees with the responsibility and most knowledge of the programs are not exercising their responsibility,'' said former CBO Director Robert D. Reischauer, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Lawmakers are well aware of the situation.
As the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Hatch is particularly irked over Congress's inability for the past two decades to reauthorize the Justice Department. Last year, the House and Senate produced the necessary legislation, but the bills never went to conference committee. The whole legislative process hasn't worked in the past four years,'' contended Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif. Waxman and other Democrats note that House and Senate GOP leaders, especially former Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia, de- emphasized the committee process in recent years. The Democrats complain that the Republicans often bring bills to the floor without hearings or a committee markup, and sometimes they form special ''task forces'' outside the committees to craft legislation.