Congress came back to work today. It's the end of their Fourth of July holiday. Yes, today is the 12th. You probably didn't get that long a break. These guys get to set their own hours; you probably don't. If you're worrying that they'll do something awful while they're here, don't. They're only here for a couple of weeks, then the August recess starts. That gets you through Labor Day, or thereabouts, and hey, in a good year, they like to finish up in October. The pay's not all that great--$ 174,000 a year, but you sure can't beat the hours. What have they done? They've passed one major piece of legislation, health care. Big bill, right up there with Medicare and Social Security. It's a complicated issue, and it will probably turn out that some parts of the bill work better than others, so it will need to be amended, improved in the years ahead--just like Medicare and Social Security. There's other big stuff pending--a bill to extend unemployment compensation, another to regulate the financial industry. Will there be time for those this year? No one knows. I think Congress is less visible in the public eye than it used to be. That may simply be because the issues have changed. The great questions of the 1960s were single questions--should blacks be allowed to vote, allowed to sit next to whites on the bus. They were passionately debated, but simple. Congress voted; the country moved on. Health care, financial reform are much more complicated. Keep at it guys, you're doing all right, I think. And be sure, of course, that you get enough time off.
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