Urgency creates decision-making.
You know Washington, if the deadline is midnight,
they'll start working on it at about 11:30.
That was Kevin Brady, Republican member from
Texas and chairman of the tax writing committee
in the House of Representatives, talking at
a Politico event about the kind o
artificial deadlines that Congress frequently sets for
themselves in order to get something done.
So today, I'm going to give you a deadline.
By the end of these office hours I want you
to be able to tell when it's a serious Washington
deadline and when it's the kind where you
roll your eyes.
So let's go through a few.
First up, sunset provisions.
These are laws that have a specific time frame
after which they expire.
Take for example the assault weapons ban passed
in 1994 with a 10-year time frame.
After that decade had passed, control of Congress
had passed from the Democrats to the Republicans,
they did not want the ban, they let it expire,
they did not act to renew it.
Therefore, all the weapons that were once
restricted under that particular law have
been legal since 2004.
Next up - the committees in Congress that
pass authorizing bills.
They all have end dates so that Congress will
periodically reconsider and
re-examine the programs in question.
That's everything from the park service to
the IRS to air traffic control.
A lot of these deadlines we hear about also
have to do with money.
You have to give the government agencies authority;
you have to give them money to carry out that authority.
The federal budget year ends every year on
Sept. 30 and if we haven't gotten all the
funding bills passed, which often happens,
then we get what's called a continuing resolution
to get us past that Sept. 30 deadline and
set a new deadline
sometime later into the winter.
Finally, the artificial deadline.
This sort of deadline really boils down to
leadership saying
"no more TV until your homework is done."
Now Sen. Harry Reid, when he was the Senate
majority leader,
was a master of this kind of bluff.
He was constantly saying "we're going to work
into the weekend" for this or for that.
Rarely, rarely did they ever work into the
weekend.
The only real deadline for any piece of legislation
is the end of a particular Congress, and this
Congress does not end until the first week
of January, 2019.
[phone rings]
Just one second - Hi hon!
No, oh yeah.
I'll be there, OK?
OK.
Thanks.
Bye.
Now that's what I call a deadline.
I'm Ron Elving at NPR.
Thanks for coming to my office hours.
