Opinion

Get to it

Opinion of, The Miami Herald
Published: September 20, 2012

If members of Congress, like school students, had to turn in an essay on "What I did last summer," it wouldn't take long to write. They didn't do much in the months leading up to August except engage in political infighting and perhaps scrounge around for scandals that might embarrass the Obama administration.

Exhausted from their labors, they then took a long recess. Thanks a lot, folks. Way to earn your pay.

Topping the urgent to-do list is a six-month temporary bill to finance the government. The 2012 fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, but members have been too busy trying to score political points to actually perform one of their most basic tasks — making sure there's money available to fund disaster-aid accounts, pay the troops and so on.

But wait. There's more.

Like leaving farmers across the nation high and dry because of the failure to provide a farmers' relief bill amid one of the worst droughts in decades. Like extending a tax relief program for homeowners getting rid of their properties in short sales to avoid foreclosure. Like figuring out what to do about the looming "fiscal cliff" at the end of the year that, if left unaddressed, would almost surely drive the economy back into a tailspin.

Each of these measures is urgent because it involves a key sector of the economy and millions of Americans who are not asking members of Congress to do any heavy lifting — just their basic jobs.

And there is yet more, including a cybersecurity bill that ran into a filibuster just before the recess, averting a 30 percent cut in physicians' Medicare fees and proposals to reform the Postal Service.

Can Congress do all this before its time expires? Doubtful, given the record. But members should at least try, which is more than they've done so far.