Slew of bills helping the Veterans Affairs Department shows how much Congress can get done within a limited scope.
The panting and sudden movement woke me out of a sound sleep. I knew that sound. Suddenly, I felt hot breath on my face and a wet nudge on my neck.
A neighbor’s dog — a lively, 90-pound mutt whose name ought to be Spot — had bounded upstairs and onto the bed, like he owned the place. He’d escaped his own fenced yard, and my wife found him literally barking up a tree in our front yard. Sound sleepers, no one had answered their door or telephone. So we took in Toby, who spent the night with us.
More than spent the night — he took over the bed, squirming in close and generally showing love for not having had to spend the night outside with the squirrels and deer.
Toby was to us as the House Veterans Affairs Committee was to the Veterans Affairs Department yesterday.
The committee hugged VA, showering it with love. Secretary David Shulkin might be wiping his cheek and saying to himself, “Down boy!”
Specifically, the committee approved no less than 11 bills yesterday. They would:
You might say the committee is helping VA head to toe.
I guess most of it is decent legislation, accomplished in a mostly bipartisan manner. It shows what Congress is capable of. These bills still need clearance by the full House, and the Senate must match the work before any of it becomes law. Chances are good it will happen.
The bills also reflect the basic characteristic of Congress. It’s relatively efficient when dealing with discrete problems in a single agency. But the greater the scope the less effective it becomes. Thus the federal government operating budget, unsustainable entitlement costs, military strategy, health insurance policy, and tax policy linger or go haphazardly addressed year after year.
It’s as if, in VA, Congress found a broken window. Legislatively, it’s sent in carpenters, glaziers, insulators, paint-and-caulkers, and decorators. But the building is on fire.
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Tom Temin is host of the Federal Drive and has been providing insight on federal technology and management issues for more than 30 years.
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