Legislating on the Sly

Legislative process seldom resembles the model of representative democracy that students learn in civics classes. Loading up popular bills with unrelated legislation known as riders, back-room deals to sneak in provisions without debates and dishing out pork-barrel spending are common. But what is particularly disturbing this year besides the scale of the legislative misdemeanor is that the Senate leaders, lagging behind on most government funding bills and eager to hit the campaign trail, decided to deal most members out of the legislative process by skipping floor votes. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and company have sent spending bills that most of the senators have not read or voted upon to a conference with the House. Some of the country’s most atrocious policy is being made that way.

By the latest count, nine riders have been added to the appropriations for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and independent agencies to weaken or delay significant environmental rules. Among those are measures to delay the listing of communities with unhealthy smog levels, the implementation of soon-to-be-issued emission standards for diesel trucks and buses, and new rules to lower arsenic levels in drinking water. Others would weaken or hamper the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to clean up rivers, lakes and bays contaminated with toxic waste.

California’s 800 or so family wineries are the victims of a particularly sneaky piece of legislating. After losing a Senate vote, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) came up with a rider that would discourage Internet sales of wine. The only beneficiaries of such a law would be wine distributors who lose hefty markups when wine is sold directly online.

Waiting only for the appropriate bill to ride on is a proposal to lift the 30% limit on cable ownership in any given market, a move that would help AT&T; to acquire MediaOne and become the nation’s dominant cable company. Also in the works is a $50-million measure to boost subsidies for the nation’s richest farmers. A similar subsidy attempted last year would have benefited only the biggest 20 of California’s 5,000 eligible farmers.

Legislating by stealth is not new. But the scale on which it is taking place in the waning days of the 106th Congress and the amounts of money involved are raising ire even on Capitol Hill. “We are poisoning the institutional role” of the Senate, declared Robert C. Byrd (D-W. Va.). With 42 years in the Senate, he knows.