The 111th Congress: history — and hysteria

WASHINGTON —

However history judges the 535 men and women in the House and Senate the past two years, one thing is certain: The 111th Congress made more laws affecting more Americans than any other since the "Great Society" legislation of the 1960s.

For the first time since President Theodore Roosevelt began the quest for a national health-care system more than 100 years ago, the Democratic-led Congress took the biggest step toward achieving that goal by giving 32 million Americans access to insurance. Wall Street rules were rewritten in the most comprehensive way since the Great Depression. Consumers were given protections against the credit-card industry. Lawmakers spent more than $1.67 trillion to revive an economy on the verge of a depression, including tax cuts for most Americans, jobs for more than 3 million, construction of roads and bridges and investment in alternative energy; ended an almost two-decade ban against openly gay men and women serving in the military, and on Wednesday ratified a nuclear-arms treaty with Russia.

Before adjournment, a bill was passed to help rescuers and cleanup crews suffering from illnesses linked to the Sept. 11, 2001, wreckage in New York.

Despite all that, the 111th Congress probably will be remembered most for endless filibusters, volcanic town-hall meetings and the rise of the tea-party movement. All were symbols of a dissatisfaction that peaked Nov. 2, when Republicans regained control of the House and picked up six Senate seats.

"This is the most dysfunctional political environment that I have ever seen. But then you have to juxtapose that with (this Congress being) one of, at least, the three most productive Congresses" since 1900, said Norman Ornstein, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "Making sense of all of that can make your head burst."

Wall Street wealth

As lawmakers concluded their work Wednesday, Wall Street firms are positioned to complete their best two years in revenue, General Motors has emerged from bankruptcy with more than $23 billion repaid to the Treasury, and AIG sold $2 billion of bonds in its first offering since the 2008 bailout. The S&P 500 Index has gained 38.9 percent since Congress convened in January 2009, the biggest increase for a two-year congressional session since 1997-98.

Stimulus money created and saved jobs, helping strapped state governments retain workers, according to government analyses.

The careers of many lawmakers didn't fare so well, however. Tea-party activists channeled their frustration with spending and debt into political campaigns, to the detriment of Democratic incumbents.

"What we did was work, and our reward was, 'Get out of here,' " said Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., the outgoing chairwoman of the House Rules Committee. While she won re-election, five of her Democratic colleagues in New York did not.

Party-line votes on most major measures engendered ill will among Republicans and in the Senate helped stall initiatives requiring bipartisan support. Blocked legislation included limits on greenhouse-gas emissions, a bill the House passed in June 2009, a measure offering illegal immigrants a path to citizenship and the Obama administration's attempts to curb growing income inequality with tax increases for higher earners.

Those are unlikely to be tackled next year, when the House's Republican majority will turn its attention to dismantling the health-care law and cutting domestic spending by $100 billion.

Congress this year also was unable to approve a single one of the 12 annual appropriations bills that fund the government.

"I think it was a disaster," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said of the congressional session.

Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, the chamber's No. 2 Democratic leader, and outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi see it differently.

"This whole two-year session has been dramatic in terms of its achievement and the changes that it's brought about," Durbin said.

Said Pelosi: "We're very, very proud of the work that was done by this Congress. We came here to do a job, and we got much of it done."

The policies embraced by the 111th Congress suggested the end of an era, as Democrats pushed to reverse three decades of deregulation that began under President Reagan, economists say.

"We've been in a trend toward an attempt to deregulate the economy," said Ethan Harris, head of developed-markets economic research at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research. "You're turning back the clock to an earlier period."

Out of the gates fast

Congress scored its first big accomplishment weeks after Obama's inauguration with passage in late February 2009 of a $814 billion stimulus bill. It has created or saved 3.3 million jobs, according to the Congressional Budget Office, while steering more funds to road construction, broadband technologies and renewable-energy ventures.

The health-care bill approved in March provided insurers millions of customers by requiring that all Americans have insurance. The insurance, pharmaceutical and medical-device industries also will face billions of dollars in new fees, and hospitals face a host of new standards designed to curb costs.

The law is facing legal challenges, with the insurance provision a key dispute.

An overhaul of financial-services rules, approved in July, aims to prevent a repeat of an economic collapse that led to the failures of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual. Included was $4 billion in aid to help unemployed property owners avoid foreclosure, although the program has fallen short.

Congress also passed laws to help ensure pay equity by enabling women to pursue lawsuits claiming they were underpaid, and to empower the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the tobacco industry.

Lawmakers also expanded state health-insurance programs for children and confirmed two Supreme Court justices, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan. Sotomayor became the first Latino on the court, and the pair increased to three the number of female justices.

"You're president of the United States and you get two women on the Supreme Court? Bang, bang," said Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash. "That's historic."

The final touches

After the November elections, Congress in a lame-duck session made significant additions to its accomplishment list. Lawmakers approved an $858 billion measure that continues Bush-era tax cuts for two years, extends aid for 13 months to the long-term unemployed, provides a reduced estate tax and cuts 2011 payroll taxes by 2 percentage points.

Congress in its final days also voted to repeal the military's "don't ask, don't tell" ban on openly gay men and women. The biggest food-safety overhaul in more than 70 years was passed Tuesday. And the Senate ratification of the nuclear-arms treaty with Russia gives Obama a key foreign-policy victory.

Democrats say it will take years before the public recognizes their achievements. Many measures were designed to forestall a bleaker recession, little comfort to many Americans as the unemployment rate has remained at 9.5 percent or worse for more than a year.

"It was hard to tell people that we accomplished anything important when their lives are so difficult," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif.

Information from The Washington Post and The New York Times

is included in this report.