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February 10, 2012
Lisa M. Krieger: Man with defibrillator demands access to his own heart's information
David G. Savage: Why activists may not be in a hurry to have High Court rule on alternative marriage
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Kimberly Palmer: How to actually enjoy -- relaxing, financially -- your vacation
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January 30, 2012
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Jewish World Review
April 6, 2009
/ 12 Nissan 5769
A Bipartisan Bill Worth Celebrating
By
David Broder
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
When Congress comes back from its two-week recess, members of both parties will be invited to the White House to celebrate what is, in today's context, almost a miracle: the signing of the Serve America Act of 2009.
Congress adjourned on Friday for the Easter break with the usual sounds of partisan struggle filling the air as the House and Senate rushed to pass the budget resolutions for next year. Nothing that one party proposed found favor with the other. Feelings were, once again, rubbed raw.
But eight days earlier, when the Senate approved a slightly modified version of the House-passed national service act by an overwhelming 79 to 19, the atmosphere was completely different. Democrats were congratulating Republicans and Republicans were praising Democrats.
Some of the enthusiasm for this bill can be explained by its subject matter: the array of programs that offer everyone from high school students to senior citizens the opportunity to participate in community and public service projects, either on a full-time or part-time voluntary basis.
Every president since the end of World War II has endorsed these programs and expanded their scope, one way or another. Barack Obama and John McCain, who agreed on few things during the campaign, both called for expanding volunteer opportunities.
But the impetus for this spring's bipartisan success came from the friendship and partnership of two other senators: Orrin Hatch, the conservative Republican from Utah, and Ted Kennedy, the liberal Democratic lion from Massachusetts.
Early last year, just as the partisan emotions of the presidential campaign began to rise, the two began talking to each other about their shared interest in national service. The topic was a natural for both. Kennedy's brother, the late president, had made his Peace Corps proposal a centerpiece of his 1960 campaign and had signed the law making it a reality. Hatch, like many young Mormons, had spent two years as a volunteer missionary for his church.
They quickly agreed on a bill that would combine two quite different approaches to national service.
As Hatch said during the Senate debate, they decided to marry the expansion of traditional voluntary, part-time community service, endorsed by generations of Republicans, with increases in government-subsidized, full-time service programs devised by Democratic presidents, beginning with the Peace Corps.
As Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, who took over managing the bill because of Kennedy's illness, told the Senate, the bill triples the size of AmeriCorps, the full-time, government-subsidized volunteer program, to 250,000 slots over the next eight years.
Expansion of the full-time programs is needed because last year, 35,000 college seniors and graduates applied for the 4,000 available slots in Teach for America while 13,000 people tried to get into the Peace Corps, which could accept less than one-third of them.
But most of the estimated 61 million Americans who volunteered time last year gave up only a few hours a week to a local church, school, food bank or community group doing things that are increasingly important in these hard economic times.
Thanks to Hatch, many provisions of the law are aimed at increasing opportunities for those unpaid volunteers, including help for these organizations in recruiting, training and deploying the volunteers, and to the volunteers themselves in finding organizations that need them.
Despite all the goodwill, 19 senators, all Republicans, including the party's two top leaders, voted against the law. The arguments were spurious. Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana, for example, charged that "this new federal bureaucracy would, in effect, politicize charitable activity around the country."
But John Bridgeland, the former director of George W. Bush's domestic policy council who lobbied for the bill, points out that its supporters ranged from AARP to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Often, passage of a bill leaves the winning side exhausted and the losers bitter. Working together on this bill left most Republicans and Democrats feeling good about themselves.
They could feel that way more often if they would just work past the excessive partisanship.
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Previously:
04/02/09:Obama's Muscle Moment
03/30/09: Warning: Congress is about to perform a cover-up on the most serious threat to America's economic future
03/23/09: Mr. Cool's March Madness
03/16/09: End of the honeymoon
03/08/09: Education's Chance of a Lifetime: Reforming Education With Sufficient Resources
03/05/09: Running on empty
03/01/09: Illinois' Mr. Clean
02/26/09: Obama rolls the dice
02/22/09: New Eyes On Bigger Prizes
02/19/09: Betting on bipartisanship
02/16/09: Just the Start
02/12/09: Biden in the House
02/09/09: The GOP Faces the Blue Wall
02/06/09: A cabinet loss and gain
02/02/09: The votes Obama truly needs
02/02/09: It's no joke to Illinois
01/26/09: Dynasties in decline
01/22/09: Born to build bridges
01/19/09: The call that Bush didn't make
01/15/09: Diplomacy that heals
01/12/09: An early drubbing for Obama
01/09/09: Tales From Longworth
01/05/09: Missing A Few Sages
01/02/09: Illinois Outdoes Itself
12/29/08: The GOP Goes South
12/15/08: Health Reform's Moment
12/11/08: Long Path to a Fall in Illinois
12/08/08: Rescuing a college education
12/04/08: The danger of holdovers
11/31/08: Addressing the States' Dire Straits
11/28/08: Good time for a brainy president
11/24/08: Rising Hope For Fixing Health Care
11/19/08: A Force for Good but Not at State
11/17/08: GOP has work to do
11/13/08: Obama's good start
11/10/08: Governors Know Best
11/06/08: The Task Ahead
11/03/08: The Amazing Race: I thought 1960 was the best campaign I'd ever cover. But 2008 has that election beat
10/30/08: What We've Learned About McCain
10/27/08: A New England Brawl
10/23/08: Blue Sparks in Red Ohio
10/17/08: Obama's Assurance Policy
10/14/08: Live from the Pennsylvania frontlines
10/12/08: The proposals that could bind Obama
10/09/08: What do we really know about them?
10/06/08: The uplifting debate
10/02/08: Economics Exam in Michigan
09/28/08: McCain out-pointed Obama
09/26/08: Credibility Test for Congress
09/22/08: A debate's high stakes
09/22/08: Down days for McCain
09/15/08: The Next President's Due Bill
09/11/08: GOP celebration and Dem gloom are premature
09/08/08: Can we count on change?
09/03/08: Palin's Learning Curve
09/02/08: How Palin could help
09/02/08: What Happened to the Obama of 2004?
08/26/08: The Women Hit Their Mark
08/25/08: The Joe I know … and what it means for McCain
08/21/08: In N.H., a Deal to Close
08/18/08: Obama's Well-Oiled Machine
08/14/08: Pros and Conventions: Useful Ideas From the Stevensons and Friends
08/11/08: Rivals in Search of Trust
08/07/08: A Way Back to the High Road?
08/04/08: A Slate To Revive The Senate
07/31/08: When Congress Works
07/29/08: Management 101 for Senators
07/24/08: Obama's success abroad was pure luck
07/21/08: Obama's success abroad was pure luck
07/17/08: Governors offer real world wisdom. Obama and McCain would be wise to listen
07/14/08: Foes and allies strive to peg a shifty Obama
07/10/08: Fixing How We Go to War
07/07/08: Decider on the High Court
07/03/08: One Nation No More? Civics Needs a Boost, but Our Identity Endures
06/30/08: Dumbing Down the Presidency
06/26/08: Voting's Neglected Scandal
06/23/08: Why don't we know what makes Obama tick?
06/19/08: Foreign Policy's Best Hope
06/16/08: Perot, Back On the Charts
06/16/08: The Many Gifts of Tim Russert
06/12/08: Why Hillary played the womyn card
06/08/08: Eclipsed by the Adventures of Hillary
06/02/08: Obama in retreat
06/02/08: Reality vs. the Mythmakers
05/29/08: Hamilton Jordan's Message to Obama
05/27/08: Let the Veepstakes Begin
05/19/08: The mental exercise of placing Obama in the Oval Office requires more imagination than did moving Reagan from the silver screen to Pennsylvania Ave.
05/15/08: For Obama, a Lost Moment
05/12/08: The price of delay
05/08/08: Phoniness and inevitability
05/05/08: Winning by destruction: An insider reveals the Hillary game plan
05/01/08: Candidates' high-mindedness is rooted in religiosity; but Hillary and McCain don't have hater as inspiration
© 2008, by WPWG
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