11/20/02

N ot passing the homeland security bill for months because of an argument about union rules was a bad idea. But the process of passing the bill this week, with the House shoving in a pile of last-minute amendments and then going home, telling the Senate to take it or leave it, was no model of congressional defense of the nation, either.

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You know a process is a mess when four key senators announce they're voting for something only because they've been promised it will be changed later.

Or when Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., joins the Democrats in a vote to strip out "a number of egregious special interest riders that should not be part of this landmark measure."

At least they weren't hard to find.

The House bill included an amendment to protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits over side effects -- which would be one thing for new vaccines for smallpox or anthrax, but now also excuses the companies from existing lawsuits over mercury-based preservatives possibly connected to autism. Capitol cynics -- and there are such people -- connected to last-minute bonanza to the companies' generous and successful investments in the midterm elections.

A previous amendment -- from the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn. -- barring companies that moved offshore for tax purposes from federal security contracts was suddenly weakened. And plans for a federal security research center were written in a way that it could only go to Texas A&M University, in the home state of House GOP powerhouse Tom DeLay.

"This is not good government," complained Democratic leader Tom Daschle. "This is shabby government."

Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, both R-Maine, Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., voted for the bill only after GOP leader Trent Lott promised sections will be changed -- although DeLay says he's agreed only to take another look at them.

The biggest federal government overhaul in decades is no place for special-interest surprises. Even on the most crucial issues, there is no security against congressional power plays.