Looking Back to How to Work Forward

Looking Back to How to Work Forward

The New Year heralds a new session of Congress. And with the start of the new Congress comes talk of bipartisanship and "working together." My hope, of course, is that the 110th Congress will work together in a bipartisan manner, though experience suggests there will be plenty of politics as well.

Actually, there were some examples from the 109th Congress of legislators working effectively together.

There was a major bill approved by Congress just before adjournment in December by a vote of 79 to 9. While the bill primarily extended certain tax cuts, it was attached to a bill I drafted with Californian Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein, which will provide an appeals avenue for tax relief for individuals who the Internal Revenue Service claims are liable for a spouse's tax backlog (frequently in a divorce setting).

The final, larger bill contained provisions that received support from both sides of the aisle; ranging from the renewal of key tax cuts, to the expansion of Health Savings Accounts, and to restoring payments to doctors who treat Medicare patients.

Another example of bipartisanship winning over politics was the passage of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act. The legislation, named for Adam Walsh, who was murdered 25 years ago, was strongly pushed by his father, John Walsh, the host of "America's Most Wanted." John called it, "the toughest piece of child protection legislation in 25 years." The bill contained provisions written by both Republicans and Democrats, most of which were designed to provide safeguards for children against sexual predators and provide law enforcement and prosecutors with additional tools and resources to better go after these criminals. A provision I sponsored creates a national database of child abusers so that they cannot escape detection when they move from one state to another.

There are some tough problems that will require bipartisan cooperation next year. Republicans have already said they would work with Democrats on lobby reform legislation. We will need that same spirit to address other important issues, like immigration reform and continuing to support our troops, law enforcement and our intelligence community in the war against terrorists.

One particular issue concerns a law, overwhelmingly passed this year, which some Democrats say they will try to amend. It provided the legal framework for dealing with unlawful combatants detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

After a U.S. Supreme Court decision held that the President could not establish the rules and procedures on his own, a bipartisan majority in Congress set up a separate court system and appeals process for terrorist detainees. And a federal court has now upheld the new legislation. As a result, detainees like one of bin Laden's body guards won't be able to sue our military because he doesn't like the conditions of his confinement. But he will have adequate legal rights to assert his innocence of the crime with which he's been charged.

Dealing with terrorists should be something on which most Americans can agree. I hope we will agree not to change the rules that now have court approval.

Certainly there will be issues that Democrats and Republicans may never agree on. But voters want their representatives to strive to work together for the security and future of America. I hope we can do that.

http://kyl.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=267144