Rep. Joe Pitts: A Busy Fall on Capitol Hill

A guest column by U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts:

A Busy Fall on Capitol Hill

By Congressman Joe Pitts

This fall could be one of the busiest and most dramatic periods in recent Congressional history. Congress is considering legislation that could remake vast portions of our economy and affecting every American.

I hope that as we consider the following pieces of legislation, each member of Congress will be allowed the time to carefully read and consider the individual bills. There’s much to do, but much harm can be done if Congress does not act carefully.

If you were able to participate in one of my townhall meetings in the past month you would have seen my copy of H.R. 3200, the healthcare reform bill. As the Energy and Commerce Committee marked up the bill, I read it cover to cover and my copy is filled with notes, markers, and inserts.

Right now, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic Leadership, and committee chairmen are working on a new version of this bill. I hope that when it is introduced they will give members a good amount of time to read a bill that will certainly be more than 1,000 pages long.

Only a small group of Democrats are working on this new version of the bill and, while most House Members are in the dark about its contents, we fully expect that it will contain a government-run insurance plan known as the "public option." Speaker Pelosi has said many times that the House will not pass a bill without the public option.

I believe we need health reform but I worry that a public options would quickly become the only option for many. The public option will not compete on a level playing field and I believe that millions of Americans will ultimately end up on this plan whether they like it or not.

While the President has announced his personal support for the public option, he may be willing to drop it from legislation because of strong opposition from some Democrats in the House and Senate. With liberal Democrats vowing not to vote for a plan without a public option, Obama could face a revolt within his own party in coming weeks.

While the focus this fall will be health care, it's not the only big issue that Congress will deal with this fall.

The House barely passed the cap and trade legislation moving that debate over to the Senate. While leadership in that body has said they will consider legislation in the coming weeks, many moderate Democrats and most Republicans are highly skeptical about taking up legislation that could hurt job growth and raise electric rates.

Should legislation pass in the Senate, it would probably be substantially different from what was passed in the House. Any legislation that comes out of a conference committee would once again be considered by the House. It’s difficult to say how hard Obama and Congressional Democrats will push for this legislation with unemployment continuing to rise.

The House is expected to soon consider new regulations on Wall Street and the banking industry. Obviously, we need to determine where the regulators failed so that the federal government never bails out firms that have become "too big to fail." We need a system that still rewards success but ensures that ultimately investors are responsible for failure, not the American taxpayer.

Finally, Congress still has to pass bills to fund the federal government before the end of the fiscal year. Right now the House has passed a dozen appropriations bills while the Senate has passed none. All told, the bills passed by the House would increase spending across all departments by $75 billion even though tax receipts have dramatically decreased.

With the Senate slow to pass its bills, there is the possibility that we will once again fund the government with a large omnibus spending bill. Such a bill would likely do little to control spending and could contain thousands of earmarks that were never given proper consideration.

There's a lot on the plate this year but the decisions we make will have repercussions for decades. We need careful and thoughtful leadership during this time and I hope that Congress takes the time to do things right.

Rep. Joe Pitts represents Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District in Berks, Chester and Lancaster counties.