House Dems Chide GOP On Legislative Record

Top House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Pelosi and House Minority Whip Hoyer, today will highlight major bills Congress has failed to pass this session, including a reauthorization of surface transportation programs, a repeal of the foreign sales corporation/extraterritorial income tax scheme, a comprehensive energy package and a full, five-year FY05 budget resolution.

"These are major bills that are not getting done because Republicans are so averse to compromise," said a senior Democratic leadership aide, who cited Democratic complaints of short work weeks and repeat votes on the GOP's eight-week economic agenda as a poor use of time in an already abbreviated session.

However, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Deborah Pryce of Ohio offered her own critique of Democrats Wednesday.

"[Democrats] certainly can't boast about tax relief -- they don't support it. They aren't bragging about adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare -- they wanted no part of it. And you will not hear them touting the liberation of more than 20 million people in Iraq -- they'd rather call the efforts of our military there unwinnable," she said.