The next two weeks are all about politics, but with a laundry list of unaddressed issues, Capital Region Democrat Paul Tonko says Congress shouldn't be taking a vacation.
The House is in recess until September 6th, and also scheduled to be gone for the entire month of October. Tonko, a Democrat from the 20th House district, is imploring Republican Speaker Paul Ryan to cancel the summer recess and call lawamkers back to Washington, after the two major political party conventions conclude. "With the campaign year this year, we have a shortened season already that they had scheduled, so my worry is that in September, there will be precious few days remaining where we can get a lot of this work down, and it should be done by regular order. By that I mean work through the committees so that the committees, in their microcosm sense can, with a smaller body, determine what the bills look like, if they need to be further amended, and build a consensus with the U.S. Senate, and get the business done. That takes time.”
With 17 legislative days remaining on the calendar, Tonko fears that’s not enough time to handle what he sees as several priorities.
One is infrastructure, specifically drinking water. Tonko cited Flint, Michigan, Hoosick Falls, and even Albany, where many water pipes are more than 100 years old. "You know the loss there, just in pipes that are leaking is in the billions of gallons a day. This is not just water, it's also dollars, because it's treated water. And so the foolishness of not addressing soundness of drinking water infrastructure is costing us money."
Tonko had pounded the drum to address infrastructure prior to the aforementioned calamities, and issues a stern warning. "Ask families in Hoosick Falls or ask families in Flint, Michigan what the cost of doing nothing is."
He adds there is also a shortage of educated people qualified to repair water infrastructure. Tonko's to-do list also includes emergency funding to confront the nation's opioid epidemic, curb gun violence, and address climate change... "Looking at methane emission and carbon emission as two major concerns that are impacting our climate and our quality of life" - campaign finance... "We need legislation that I have joined on that co-sponsors a bill that would reduce the increasing power that money has on our political process, our political system." Lack of funding to fight the Zika Virus... "The president has called for $1.9 billion as a response. What we did, what was proposed by the House, was simply a shell game. To take money from another crisis, the Ebola crisis, to take money from emergency services for community, and slide that over to the Zika virus through September. Well, if we're going to address that crisis it requires a sound plan on addressing the population of mosquitoes and it also requires research on developing a sound vaccine that will enable us to avoid the complexities of a very expensive outcome for children that will be born impacted by the Zika virus. Unfinished business that will cost us dearly.”
Tonko quoted a $10 million price tag for every baby born with microcephaly as a result of Zika, and he says Congress' failing to act is nothing less than "a moral outrage."
And what about the likelihood of Speaker Ryan actually calling lawmakers back to Capitol Hill?
"Following the conventions, I would hope that you know, sentiment, public sentiment out there would drive this decision along with those of his colleagues urging him to bring us back to complete business and get it done in August and September."
