Farm, air, and budget bills await action

Abstract

At press time the 101st Congress was scheduled to adjourn sine die on Oct. 27, nearly a month after its originally scheduled departure date and only 14 days before all of the House members and one third of the Senators are due to face the voters. During its final week Congress had to complete work not only on a very contentious overall spending reduction and revenue enhancement package, but also on all 13 of the appropriations bills needed to tell the federal departments and agencies how much they can spend on what programs. Those are absolute necessities. Also on the agenda are a number of bills that had been passed by both branches of Congress and had been cleared in House-Senate conference committees. This list is headed by S. 1630, the first major rewrite of the Clean Air Act in over a decade that imposes stringent new controls on chemical emissions. Also on the list ...