BY PAUL BARTON
Enquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- At a time when critics cite Congress for dawdling on major issues, Cincinnati-area members in 1998 have gotten many of their bills through either the House or Senate -- with a few headed to the president's desk.
Rep. Rob Portman, R-Terrace Park, has been a leader in seeing his bills pass the House.
They include a revised version of Internal Revenue Service reforms, a bill to protect tropical rain forests, a measure to protect small businesses from overly burdensome federal mandates and a bill to commemorate the Underground Railroad.
The IRS reforms and Underground Railroad bill are likely headed to White House bill-signing ceremonies this month.
Meanwhile, Rep. Steve Chabot -- who has not had a lot of success with pet legislative projects before this year -- has started to pick up the pace.
Mr. Chabot, R-Cincinnati, has gotten measures through the House in 1998 that would give federal judges the option of televising their proceedings, crack down on the importation of controlled substances from Mexico, restrict federal prisoners' access to the Internet and direct more federal block grants to protecting students and teachers from drugs, guns and violent crime.
In the Senate, Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, is scoring on several fronts, with bills that overhaul federal job training programs, make it easier to prosecute deadbeat parents and force federal agencies to look harder in their files for information related to Nazi war crimes. All three have passed the chamber this year, and Mr. DeWine recently attended a ceremony at the White House on the child support legislation.
Mr. DeWine is also the Senate sponsor of the Underground Railroad bill.
"Kitchen-table" issues
Political experts say many of the bills pushed by Tristate members fit a growing pattern -- one they credit to President Clinton -- of touching on so-called "kitchen table" issues through little steps rather than sweeping initiatives.
"The public is clamoring for more attention to the details of their daily existence," said John Hibbing, congressional scholar at the University of Nebraska.
Few pieces of legislation fit the bill more clearly than one by Rep. Jim Bunning, R-Southgate, and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that would make prepaid tuition savings plans tax-free.
It has passed both the House and Senate but faces a probable White House veto.
Mr. McConnell is also out to hold family costs down by taking aim at personal injury suits that drive up car insurance rates. Meanwhile, concerns about crime and drugs continue to be prevalent themes in the legislation of Cincinnati-area members.
Mr. Chabot's bill to reduce Internet access for federal prisoners is designed to reduce the chances of sexual predators reaching children through that medium.
Among the several bills Mr. Portman has moved through the House this year is a $10 million grant program designed to help small businesses establish drug-free workplace policies.
Such limited programs give members, "a nice way to ease into some new ideas without giving the impression that you are a big tax-and-spender," Mr. Hibbing said. Another bill of Mr. Portman's -- to protect tropical rain forests, co-sponsored by Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Nashville, Ind. -- also carries a relatively small price tag.
It allocates $325 million over three years to the forgiveness of debts for tropical countries that agree to participate. The money would come from savings in other parts of the budget.
In general, many political observers see Congress in 1998 as passing mainly little bills, not bold measures. The impression was reinforced when the $516 billion tobacco-control legislation died in the Senate.
But the IRS reforms on their way to the president, for instance, are the most dramatic changes in the agency in 46 years.
Meanwhile, the banking system and financial services modernization bill that Republican Conference Chairman John Boehner, R-West Chester, led to House passage would bring the most sweeping changes in those industries since the Great Depression.
And Mr. Chabot is involved in one of the most potentially far-reaching bills of the 105th Congress -- one that would impose a moratorium on Internet taxes by state and local governments. He was one of the major players in developing the legislation with Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif.
