Earl Blumenauer: “for those who are concerned about making our communities more livable, New Year's Eve is approaching; not the one that…”

“for those who are concerned about making our communities more livable, New Year's Eve is approaching; not the one that ushers in the new millenium, but one which for a number of us may be even more problematic. I am talking about the Federal fiscal new year that ends in just 2 days. As the end draws near and as we begin the final stages of this year's budget process, there are still many decisions to be made and much work to be done. Currently our friends on the Committee on Appropriations are trying desperately to avert the disaster of last year's omnibus spending bill. We all recall the millions upon millions of dollars given away in the dead of night to special interests and pet projects as we in Congress were given a 2,714-page bill at 4 o'clock in the afternoon to vote on at 7 that evening. This pathetic process made Congress look foolish while sadly skewing our funding priorities. It was a lose-lose proposition. The truth is that apparently we did not learn from last year's mistakes, and as this year's budget end game approaches, we are finding that we are in a similar situation.”